Ibrahim Raisi will be accompanied by Iran’s Foreign Minister
Islamabad:
Iran’s President Ibrahim Raisi will travel to Islamabad on Monday to meet his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said, as the two countries seek to repair relations after deadly cross-border attacks this year.
The foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday that it would be accompanied by “a high-level delegation of foreign ministers… as well as a large business delegation”.
In January, tit-for-tat missile attacks hit areas along the Balochistan province – the border area between the two countries – exacerbating regional tensions fueled by Israel’s war with Hamas.
Tehran struck an anti-Iran group in Pakistan in the same week as its attacks in Iraq and Syria.
Pakistan responded by carrying out raids against “militant targets” in Iran’s Sistan-Balochistan province, one of the few Sunni Muslim regions in Shia-dominated Iran.
Both countries have accused each other of harboring militants in the past.
Following a visit by Tehran’s foreign minister to Islamabad, both sides pledged to improve dialogue and set up liaison officers in both countries.
Sistan-Balochistan has faced years of unrest from cross-border drug smuggling gangs, ethnic Baluch rebels and Muslim extremists.
Raisi will also visit Lahore and Karachi to meet with provincial leaders, the statement said.
The two countries will further strengthen ties and strengthen cooperation in “trade, connectivity, energy, agriculture, people-to-people and cultural exchanges and other fields.”
Pakistan is counting on a joint gas project with Iran to resolve a long-running power crisis that has crippled its economic growth.
A $7.5 billion Iran-Pakistan natural gas pipeline was inaugurated with great fanfare in March 2013 to provide power to Pakistani power plants.
But as the international community imposed sanctions on Iran, the project immediately stalled.
Tehran has built its own section of the 1,800-kilometer (1,100-mile) pipeline that should eventually connect its South Pars gas fields to the Pakistani city of Nawab Shah near Karachi.
In February, Pakistan’s outgoing caretaker government approved construction of an 80-kilometer pipeline, largely to avoid paying billions of dollars in fines to Iran over years of delays.
Washington has warned Pakistan it could face U.S. sanctions, saying it does not support continued construction of the pipeline.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
