The Saudi cabinet agreed on Tuesday an air transport services agreement with Pakistan, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said, a step likely to boost connectivity between the two countries.

Past agreements between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in the sphere of air transport services. In August 2023, the two countries inked a deal to increase the number of flights between them and reduce the air rates for the inhabitants.

King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud headed the Saudi cabinet as it approved the new air transport services deal at a meeting in Jeddah.

“Approval of an agreement between the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in the field of air transport services,” SPA said on X. The deal is significant for Pakistan and Saudi Arabia since every year thousands of Pakistanis visit the Kingdom for Hajj and Umrah and for jobs.

Saudi Arabia is home to more than two million Pakistani expatriates who go back and forth between the two nations often.

Pakistan has also tried to expand its aviation connection with China and Central Asian republics as it seeks to increase bilateral trade and investment links with these countries.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) started on a bullish note on Tuesday as the benchmark index regained the 179,000-point level in early trade.

Market statistics showed the KSE-100 Index jumped over 900 points in early trade to 179,405 points.

Market observers said the move was buoyed by restored investor confidence after last session’s turmoil.

The index had closed lower on the last trading day, down 450 points to 178,471 points.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed a comeback in market confidence as trading started for the second business day of the week with early gains.

The United States on Monday suspended sanctions on Iran for 60 days after the first negotiations under a new peace pact, as officials reported a continued pause in fighting in Lebanon under the agreement to end hostilities across the region.

The developments came after a weekend that threatened to jeopardise the week-old pact, with U.S. President Donald Trump threatening to reignite the war if Iran impeded shipping through the Strait of Hormuz after Tehran declared the crucial waterway blocked. Traffic in the strait picked up Monday and oil prices began their drop.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance said meetings with Iranian officials in Switzerland had built a good basis for a final peace agreement, however Iran denied it had begun talks over its nuclear program.

U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed thousands and uprooted millions. The conflict with Iran has also roiled markets throughout the world and driven up global oil prices, which closed down 3 percent Monday after Vance said some progress had been made.

The two sides negotiated a plan for a permanent agreement within 60 days at discussions in the Qatari-owned Swiss alpine resort of Buergenstock, where they tried to expand on the temporary arrangement they reached last week, mediators Pakistan and Qatar said.

They also agreed on a mechanism to cease hostilities in Lebanon between US ally Israel and Iran-aligned Hezbollah and created a communications channel to help assure safe passage for commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz to avert war in the crucial waterway.

In one of the first of numerous steps under the agreement, the U.S. Treasury announced a waiver until Aug. 21 on sanctions that allow Tehran to sell oil and related products and get paid for them, providing economic relief to Iran.

Vance upbeat on assessment

Vance, positive since the memorandum of understanding was signed, said Tehran has agreed to let in nuclear inspectors and to create systems for dealing with its frozen assets overseas and for managing cease-fires.We built a very excellent basis for a successful final deal,” he told reporters after participating in the talks.

But Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told the official IRNA news agency Iran had not yet discussed nuclear problems and made new pledges.

“Iran will agree to weapons inspections to ensure ‘nuclear honesty,’ ” Trump stated Monday on Truth Social.Later Trump told reporters, “If Iran doesn’t live up to their agreement, or if they’re not behaving, I will do what I have to do.

Iran has cut back on inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency since the U.S. and Israel conducted an initial round of air strikes last year, then stopped them altogether when war broke out in February. It insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi stated on social media that Tehran had received waivers for oil and petrochemical exports, release of some of its blocked assets abroad and launching of a rehabilitation and development plan for Iran.

White House envoy Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, had worked out a procedure under which the U.S. and Qatar would oversee Iranian finances when they were unfrozen and the money could be used to buy U.S. corn, soy and wheat, Vance said.“So the money that we lift is going to go to our farmers,” Trump told reporters.

Iran’s Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati claimed there was no such duty and stated at least some of the remaining frozen funds might be used to buy other non-sanctioned items, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported.

Cease-fire

Technical conversations are scheduled to continue through the end of the week.

The interim peace accord calls for a halt to all hostilities, including Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March after Hezbollah fired across the border.

Israel has not signed the peace accord and has said it will not withdraw its troops from Lebanon but approved a new truce on Friday. Lebanese officials said the fighting had subsided since Saturday night but continued fiercely for another day.

Israel and Lebanon are scheduled to begin a fresh round of discussions in Washington on Tuesday, with Beirut eager to move forward with direct negotiations, even as they seem to be overshadowed by Iran’s intention to include Lebanon in its negotiations with the United States.

“The first two full days of quiet since the war started,” said Hassan Wazni, director of a hospital in the brutally battered city of Nabatieh.I’m taking it day by day and most of the time I’m sleeping at the hospital. “This is the longest ceasefire to hold,” he told Reuters over the phone.

More than a million Lebanese have been displaced by the war, some have begun to return home, but many are still afraid.

In the southern village of Qennarit, mourners carried the bodies of four women killed in the latest round of Israeli attacks on Saturday. The coffins were covered with yellow Hezbollah banners and the group’s green insignia of an arm holding an assault rifle.