A quartet of regional powers convened in Turkey on Friday to coordinate their diplomatic strategy around ending the conflict between the U.S. and Iran, marking the third such closed-door session since hostilities began.
Foreign ministers from Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia gathered on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum to align on next steps. Pakistan has taken the lead mediating role and hosted peace talks the previous weekend, while Turkey and Egypt have operated behind the scenes to advance negotiations.
The repeated meetings underscore a central concern: keeping Saudi Arabia locked into the process. As the region's dominant power with outsized leverage over the Trump administration, the kingdom's cooperation is essential to any settlement. Insiders say the strategy is straightforward: involve Riyadh at every turn to eliminate any possibility it becomes an obstruction.
But Saudi Arabia's true position remains murky. U.S. officials describe a pattern of shifting stances and contradictory messaging. Before the war erupted, Saudi officials publicly endorsed diplomatic channels while privately pushing the U.S. toward military strikes. More recently, the kingdom told American counterparts it worried about scaling back the conflict before weakening the Iranian regime enough.
Simultaneously, Saudi Arabia has signaled to the mediating trio that it backs a deal and wants the fighting stopped. The kingdom's rationale centers on self interest: its oil and energy infrastructure has already sustained damage during the conflict, and officials fear worse destruction if the war persists.
Trump offered an optimistic read Friday afternoon, telling reporters that weekend negotiations with Iran would proceed. "If there are differences, I'm going to straighten it out," he said. "I don't think there's too many significant differences."
That rosy assessment does not match the full picture emerging from diplomats involved. While meaningful headway has been achieved on several fronts, substantive gaps remain unresolved on critical issues. The weeks ahead will test whether the mediators and Saudi Arabia can close those divides before the broader geopolitical environment shifts again.
Author James Rodriguez: "Saudi flip-flopping is the story here, not Trump's weekend timeline. Until Riyadh stops telling different audiences different things, any breakthrough is built on sand."
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