KABUL: Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, says Gulf countries are facing significant economic and security costs following the suspension of talks between the United States and Iran and the continuation of the current tensions between the two sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a post on X, Khalilzad questioned whether members of the Gulf Cooperation Council could help fill the diplomatic gap between Washington and Tehran by initiating talks with Iran on keeping the Strait of Hormuz open and addressing regional security concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said it would not be surprising if Gulf states launched an independent regional diplomatic initiative aimed at reaching a possible agreement with Iran, adding that the current situation may provide an appropriate opportunity for such an effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Khalilzad said Washington\u2019s policy of increasing economic pressure on Iran, which he described as an attempt to impose \u201ceconomic isolation\u201d on Tehran, may have had a significant impact and could create space for regional diplomacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He stressed that any Gulf initiative to keep the Strait of Hormuz open to trade and ensure regional security should have the support of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Khalilzad also noted that the United States has supported security cooperation among Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, arguing that a similar regional diplomatic effort could help address major challenges related to the Strait of Hormuz and wider regional security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KABUL: Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, says Gulf countries are facing significant economic and security costs following the suspension of talks between the United States and Iran and the continuation of the current tensions between the two sides. In a post on X, Khalilzad questioned whether members of the Gulf Cooperation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[73],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24133"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24135,"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24133\/revisions\/24135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}