Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani will receive Khan for a meeting to discuss bilateral relations, Qatar News Agency reported.
Khan’s visit comes amid Saudi Arabia’s reported rejection of Pakistan’s request to discuss the Kashmir issue during a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
There were unconfirmed reports in India media in December that Pakistan had achieved a “diplomatic victory” by forcing Saudi Arabia to hold a special session on Kashmir in the OIC.
But Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported Thursday that Saudi Arabia had rejected Prime Minister Khan’s calls for a discussion on Kashmir, according to Arabi21.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have traditionally been close allies, with Khan spurning December’s Muslim summit in Malaysia after alleged strong arming by Riyadh.
The emir of Qatar – which has been subject to almost a two-year Riyadh-led blockade – was also in attendance.
Thursday’s trip marks Khan’s second visit to Qatar, after having visited earlier this year. Sheikh Tamim visited Pakistan in June last year, during which he pledged to invest $3 billion.
Khan’s trip comes just weeks after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on a two-day official visit.
“My appeal to the international community is that this is the time to take action, to ask where this huge subcontinent is heading, it is not a concern of Pakistan, it will concern the whole of world,” Khan said Wednesday at the first anniversary of its standoff with New Delhi.
The two countries pulled back from the brink of war in February last year after Pakistan returned an Indian pilot it had downed and captured in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since independence in 1947, and has been the spark of two wars and numerous flare-ups between the two nuclear-armed foes.
On 4 February 2021, the 17th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup™ officially kicked off in Qatar, with…
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The Arab states of the Persian Gulf are the seven Arab states which border the Persian Gulf, namely Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).This excludes the non-Arab state of Iran. All of these nations except Iraq are part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
