Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif arrived in Antalya on Thursday, completing the third leg of a tri-nation tour that began April 15 and included stops in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan received him with a courtesy call, where President Erdogan's anticipated bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 5th Antalya Diplomacy Forum was confirmed. Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Special Assistant Tariq Fatemi accompanied Shehbaz throughout the engagements. The tour's earlier stops carried substantive security and energy content. In Doha, a one-hour-plus meeting with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani focused on Gulf security, energy supply chain stability, and bilateral defence cooperation. Qatar dispatched fighter jets to escort the Pakistani aircraft into its airspace, a gesture Shehbaz publicly acknowledged. In Jeddah, a two-hour session with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman addressed the kingdom's losses from regional escalation and Pakistan's role in brokering the US-Iran ceasefire and subsequent Islamabad talks. Crown Prince MBS explicitly credited PM Shehbaz and Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir for their constructive role in the peace process. The Saudi meeting also reaffirmed the Pakistan-Saudi Arabia Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement. The Antalya Forum appearance will allow Shehbaz to present Pakistan's regional positioning to a broader multilateral audience, with Erdogan talks expected to follow.
Iranian armed forces attacked a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, briefly halting traffic through the waterway. The strike threatens a fragile US-Iran arrangement and could push shipping insurance costs and oil prices higher.
The US has struck Iran, with President Trump citing an Iranian attack on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz as justification. The action raises immediate risks for global oil flows through one of the world's most critical shipping chokepoints.
The US struck ten Iranian targets on the second consecutive day of military action, putting a fragile ceasefire under serious pressure. The escalation raises immediate risks for Gulf shipping, global oil supply, and regional stability.
Venezuela's twin earthquakes, magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, have killed at least 164 people and injured 971, interim president Delcy Rodriguez confirmed Thursday. The quakes are the country's strongest since 1900, collapsing buildings across Caracas and prompting a state of emergency, with the death toll expected to rise as
