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Officials from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan met Iranian leaders in Tehran on Monday 26 October 2026. The Saudi Foreign Ministry said the meeting aimed to open negotiating channels and prevent a return to military escalation, according to Reuters. Iranian state media published photographs of the meeting.
The Saudi side was represented by Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, Pakistan by army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Turkey by intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin. The Iranian delegation included President Masoud Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and Mohsen Rezaei. State media said the four states agreed to continue talks.
A senior Pakistani security official, speaking anonymously to Reuters, said the focus was building a regional non-aggression network. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei, said the agenda would cover Israeli policies, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and the aftermath of US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
Iran’s public position on wider diplomacy was more critical. At his weekly news conference on Monday, Baghaei said the American side was not serious about negotiations and accused Washington of repeatedly making false claims. He also said Iran had never possessed nuclear weapons or sought them. His remarks were carried by the Iranian state news agency IRNA and relayed by Anadolu and Bernama. Iran has said it negotiated in good faith over the 2015 nuclear agreement, which the United States later withdrew from.
The meeting came as the Houthis launched further attacks on Saudi Arabia. The Houthis claimed on Monday that they had attacked pumping stations on Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline and Riyadh airport. Reuters reports those claims, and no Saudi confirmation was available at the time. Riyadh airport had earlier said it had resumed operations at two terminals, but that statement did not confirm any attack.
Reuters also reports that Saudi Arabia has stepped up strikes on the Houthis since they captured strategic areas along Yemen’s Red Sea coast last month. Reuters says the Houthis have previously hit Saudi airports, ports and oil installations, though the portion reviewed gives no dates for those attacks. The Saudi strikes and the Houthi attacks form the background to the diplomacy, and the sources reviewed do not say whether one side has signalled a pause.
Why it matters: if the talks continue, they would form a regional channel that does not depend on direct US and Iranian negotiations, which Iran says Washington is not taking seriously. For Gulf states, the aim is to prevent a return to fighting that could hit shipping, energy and civilian infrastructure.
Several things remain unknown. Reporting does not describe what, if anything, was agreed beyond continuing the talks, and the Houthi claims have not been independently confirmed. The sources reviewed do not give a date or place for the next round, and do not set out a response from the United States or Israel to the meeting.
Sources
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