- PM calls for diplomacy over violence in Middle East.
- PM Shehbaz urges all parties to remain on path of peace.
- US President Trump tells both sides to ‘stop shooting’.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday called on all parties involved in the renewed Iran-Israel hostilities in the Middle East to exercise restraint and “give peace a little more chance”.
In a post on X, PM Shehbaz said: “The recent surge in violence in the Middle East is a stark reminder of the dangers associated with a tenuous ceasefire and the unbearable consequences it may lead to.”
He added: “As we work earnestly and painstakingly, together with our brothers and partners, to find a peaceful diplomatic solution to the conflict, and especially when the final objective is just about to be achieved, we sincerely urge all sides to exercise restraint and give peace a little more chance.”
The prime minister further said: “Let us continue to remain on the path of peace and diplomacy, which have bright prospects of success instead of violence and destruction.”
PM Shehbaz’s statement comes after Israel and Iran exchanged attacks on Monday for the first time since a ceasefire in the Middle East war took effect two months ago, despite US President Donald Trump calling for restraint.
Israel struck Iranian targets after Tehran fired missiles towards Israeli territory late on Sunday. Tehran said its strikes were retaliation for Israeli attacks on strongholds of Hezbollah on the outskirts of Beirut.
Israel hit a petrochemical plant in southwestern Iran that it said was used to produce ballistic missiles. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it retaliated with a strike aimed at a similar Israeli plant in the city of Haifa.
However, Iran and Israel said on Monday they had halted attacks on each other following an appeal from Trump that they immediately “stop ‘shooting'”, though Tehran said it would resume strikes if Israel continued to hit Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Oil prices — which had risen by as much as 5% after the flurry of attacks — later pared gains when Iran’s military said its first wave of strikes on Israel was over. The dollar retreated from its highest level in nearly two months.
