DUBAI (Reuters) — Pakistan’s U.S.-requested mediation efforts between Persian Gulf rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia have been making slow progress, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday.

Prompted by Washington, Khan in October visited Tehran and Riyadh to facilitate talks after attacks on Persian Gulf oil interests that the United States blamed on Iran.

“Our mediation between Iran and Saudi Arabia has not stopped and we are making progress, but slowly”, Khan told Al Jazeera in extracts the broadcaster released from an interview to be aired in full on Wednesday. “We have done our best to avoid a military confrontation between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and our efforts have succeeded”, Al Jazeera also reported Khan as saying.