Pakistan, regional powers close ranks to safeguard fragile Middle East ceasefire

ANTALYA: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, and Egypt have established a united diplomatic front to prevent a resurgence of the Middle East war, moving to solidify a fragile ceasefire currently set to expire on April 22.

The high-level coordination took place on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum 2026, where Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar held extensive talks with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty. The Foreign Office (FO) confirmed that the four ministers reaffirmed the vital role of dialogue in managing regional dynamics and expressed a shared commitment to expanding coordination to safeguard regional stability.

The "Antalya Quartet" engagement follows two prior rounds of consultations in Riyadh and Islamabad, both focused on halting the conflict. Islamabad has significantly intensified its role as a mediator, recently hosting historic direct talks between the United States and Iran on April 11—the highest-level engagement between the two adversaries since 1979. While those negotiations, led on the U.S. side by Vice President JD Vance, ended without a formal agreement, they did not collapse. A second round of talks may be convened in the Pakistani capital in the coming week.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty revealed that Cairo is working in close proximity with Islamabad on a framework to secure a lasting settlement between Washington and Tehran. He stated that Egypt, Turkiye, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia are now coordinating a broader regional initiative designed to shape a post-war security arrangement. This framework reportedly places a specific emphasis on protecting Gulf states and preventing further escalation as the April 22 deadline looms.