Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi will arrive in neighboring Pakistan on Monday for a formal meeting with the host country’s leaders amid tensions between Iran and Israel.
A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad on Sunday said the talks would provide an “important opportunity” to strengthen bilateral ties and cooperation in trade, connectivity, energy and agriculture.
According to reports, Raisi’s high-level delegation will include Iran’s foreign minister, other cabinet members and business representatives.
During his three-day stay in Pakistan, the Iranian president is scheduled to meet with Iranian President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, among others.
“They will also discuss regional and global developments and bilateral cooperation to combat the common threat of terrorism,” the Pakistani statement said, without elaborating.
Iran and Pakistan share a 900-kilometer common border, which is prone to militant infiltration, smuggling and other illegal cross-border activities. The two countries accuse each other of failing to prevent armed groups from taking refuge in their respective territories and launching cross-border terror attacks.
In January, Iranian security forces launched missile attacks on alleged hideouts of anti-Iran militants in Pakistan’s southwestern border province of Balochistan. Islamabad has accused Iran of violating Pakistan’s territorial integrity and retaliating against bases of anti-Pakistan militants operating on Iranian soil.
The unprecedented exchange of so-called counterterrorism strikes after the Iranian-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel on October 7 has raised concerns about a larger conflict between the two Muslim countries and wider regional instability.
Tehran and Islamabad urgently launched diplomatic efforts to defuse bilateral tensions, reaffirming their commitment to strengthen counterterrorism cooperation and respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Raisi’s visit is part of a joint effort to repair relations between Iran and Pakistan.
gas pipeline
This week’s meeting in Islamabad is also expected to focus on financial and legal issues related to the construction of a gas pipeline between Iran and Pakistan, analysts said. The two countries signed an agreement in June 2009 on a proposed pipeline to export Iranian natural gas to Pakistan.
Although Tehran has since claimed to have completed construction of the 1,100-kilometer pipeline on its side of the border, construction on the Pakistani side has not yet begun because Islamabad fears it will trigger U.S. sanctions on imports of Iranian gas.
Iran’s energy sector is subject to sanctions from Washington over its nuclear programme.
Iranian officials have repeatedly threatened to sue Pakistan in international arbitration and impose liquidated damages of approximately $18 billion.
The U.S. State Department recently issued another warning to Islamabad, advising not to proceed with the project to avoid sanctions.
Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, said Iran has recently used more than 300 drones and missiles to conduct direct attacks on Israel, making it more difficult for Pakistan to build pipelines.
Kugelman wrote on social media platform zero.”
Iran launched the attack in response to Israel’s apparent destruction of the Iranian consulate in Syria on April 1, which killed seven members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, including two generals.
Ahmed Quraishi, a Pakistani expert on Middle East affairs, said: “The visit was planned weeks before the current hostilities and Pakistani officials may not have expected that the visit would coincide with a full-scale regional crisis involving Iran. ”
“The Iranian government may use this visit to demonstrate regional support for Iran’s position in the wake of tensions between Israel and Iran,” Quraishi said.
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