Turkey hosts latest diplomatic push on ME war

FE Team | Published: April 18, 2026 21:39:59

ANTALYA, Apr 18 (AFP): No date has been set for the next round of Iran-US peace talks brokered by Pakistan following the failure of the first one, Iran's deputy foreign minister said on Saturday.
"Until we agree on the framework, we cannot set the date," Saeed Khatibzadeh told journalists on the sidelines of an annual Turkish diplomatic forum in the southern province of Antalya.
"Now we are focusing on finalising the framework of understanding between two sides. We don't want to enter into any negotiation or meeting which is due to failure which can be pretext for another round of escalation," he said.
Turkey on Friday hosted a high stakes diplomatic forum bringing together the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, as Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz open and Islamabad steps up efforts to help end the Middle East (ME) war.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the shortest route to peace lay in dialogue and diplomacy.
"I believe the window of opportunity opened by the ceasefire should be used in the most effective way to establish lasting peace," he told the opening of the three-day Antalya Diplomacy Forum at the Mediterranean resort.
"No matter how deep the disagreements may be, we must not allow words to be replaced again by weapons," he said, adding that "the shortest cut to peace is constructive dialogue and diplomacy".
The foreign ministers of Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt met later on Friday on the sidelines of the forum, hours after Tehran declared Hormuz open to commercial shipping.
A photo released by the Turkish foreign ministry showed the foreign ministers of four countries meeting in a diplomatic setting.
Pakistan has sought to position itself as a key regional mediator, having hosted rare talks between Iran and the United States last weekend that ended without a breakthrough.
The White House said further talks with Iran would "very likely" take place in Islamabad, where Vice President JD Vance led the US delegation during the previous round of negotiations.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who met Qatar's ruler in Doha on Thursday as part of a regional tour, attended the opening of the Antalya forum and also met Erdogan on its margins on Friday.
"We will continue to provide all the support we can to ensure that the ongoing temporary ceasefire turns into a permanent one," a Turkish defence ministry source said on Thursday.
The source added that Ankara hoped the war "whose effects are being felt increasingly not only regionally but also globally" would end swiftly, with all parties engaging constructively in negotiations.
Turkey, a vocal critic of Israel, has joined diplomatic efforts with Egypt and Pakistan to help secure a ceasefire in the conflict, while maintaining that the truce should also apply to Lebanon.
Erdogan did not comment directly on the latest ceasefire reached between Israel and Lebanon but warned against attempts to derail talks.