Pakistan’s premier offers 'complete solidarity' to Saudi Crown Prince after Yemen port strike

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Pakistan’s premier offers 'complete solidarity' to Saudi Crown Prince after Yemen port strike

2026-01-01 01:19 Last Updated At：01:31

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s Prime Minister spoke by telephone with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday to express his “complete solidarity” with the Kingdom following this week's Saudi bombing of Yemen's port city of Mukalla, the prime minister’s office said.

According to the statement, Shehbaz Sharif also stressed the need to maintain regional peace and stability through dialogue and diplomacy. Both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthening long-standing fraternal ties, which the statement said had “attained new heights in recent months.”

The statement quoted Crown Prince Mohammed as thanking Sharif for the call and reiterating Saudi Arabia’s desire to expand cooperation with Pakistan in areas of mutual interest. It said the crown prince also expressed his intention to pay an official visit to Pakistan next year.

Saudi Arabia bombed Yemen’s southern port of Mukalla on Tuesday following the arrival of a weapons shipment from the United Arab Emirates believed to be intended for separatist forces. The strike followed heightened tensions linked to advances by the Emirates-backed Southern Transitional Council in the war-torn country.

The confrontation threatened to open a new front in Yemen’s decade-long war, with forces aligned against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels potentially clashing with each other in the Arab world’s poorest nation.

Pakistan, which also maintains close ties with the UAE, has faced one of its toughest diplomatic challenges since tensions between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi escalated this week.

Sharif spoke the Saudi Prince Salman a day after he met UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Rahim Yar Khan, a city in the eastern Punjab province, where the UAE ruler was staying after a weekend official visit to Islamabad. Authorities have said the meeting was aimed at defusing the tensions.

Islamabad and Riyadh signed a mutual defense agreement in September that defines an attack on either country as an attack on both. Saudi Arabia has long maintained close economic, religious, and security ties with Pakistan, while the UAE has also helped Islamabad with loans in recent years. In 2024, Pakistan said the UAE had committed to investing up to $10 billion in Pakistan.

Earlier on Wednesday, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement also expressed concern over renewed violence in Yemen, warning that unilateral actions by any Yemeni party could further escalate the conflict and destabilize the region.

In a statement, the ministry reaffirmed Pakistan’s support for the Kingdom’s security, Yemen’s unity and territorial integrity, and welcomed regional efforts aimed at de-escalating the situation and restoring peace and stability in the country.

Saudi Arabia is a leading supplier of oil to Pakistan, and it has given billions of dollars in loans to it in recent years to help the Islamic nation avoid a default of foreign debts and overcome economic crisis.

Some Warren Buffet wisdom on his last day leading Berkshire Hathaway

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The advice that legendary investor Warren Buffett offered on investing and life over the years helped earn him legions of followers who eagerly read his annual letters and filled an arena in Omaha every year to listen to him at Berkshire Hathaway's annual meetings.

Buffett's last day as CEO is Wednesday after six decades of building up the Berkshire conglomerate. He'll remain chairman, but Greg Abel will take over leadership.

Here's a collection of some of Buffett's most famous quotes from over the years:

“Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”

That's how Buffett summed up his investing approach of buying out-of-favor stocks and companies when they were selling for less than he estimated they were worth.

He also urged investors to stick with industries they understand that fall within their “circle of competence” and offered this classic maxim: “Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No. 1.”

“After they first obey all rules, I then want employees to ask themselves whether they are willing to have any contemplated act appear the next day on the front page of their local paper to be read by their spouses, children and friends with the reporting done by an informed and critical reporter.

“If they follow this test, they need not fear my other message to them: Lose money for the firm and I will be understanding; lose a shred of reputation for the firm and I will be ruthless.”

That's the ethical standard Buffett explained to a Congressional committee in 1991 that he would apply as he cleaned up the Wall Street investment firm Salomon Brothers. He has reiterated the newspaper test many times since over the years.

“You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.”

Many companies might do well when times are good and the economy is growing, but Buffett told investors that a crisis always reveals whether businesses are making sound decisions.

“Who you associate with is just enormously important. Don't expect that you'll make every decision right on that. But you are going to have your life progress in the general direction of the people you work with, that you admire, that become your friends.”

Buffett always told young people that they should try to hang out with people who they feel are better than them because that will help improve their lives. He said that's especially true when choosing a spouse, which might be the most important decision in life.

“Our unwavering conclusion: never bet against America.”

Buffett has always remained steadfast in his belief in the American capitalist system. He wrote in 2021 that “there has been no incubator for unleashing human potential like America. Despite some severe interruptions, our country’s economic progress has been breathtaking.”