Pakistan

Kharrazi calls for more political cooperation between Iran and Pakistan

Iran and Pakistan, as two important regional nations should join hands and work together to ensure regional and global peace, said the head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations Kamal Kharazi who was in Islamabad to participate at a seminar on ‘Emerging Regional and Global Scenario: A Perspective from Iran’ organized by Institute of Policy Studies (IPS).

He expressed hope for bilateral relations between the two neighboring countries to get better. He said certainly relations between Iran and Pakistan are not satisfactory and they have to be deepened.
“There are difference of views and policies and those differences should not keep us away for understanding and to plan more cooperation, no doubt that Iranian and Pakistani people have very close relation but there should be more political cooperation,” the former Iranian foreign minister said responding to a query.
“We hope that with the recent visits of officials from both sides the ground will be prepared for practical steps for much deeper relations between the two sides,’ he added.
Kharazi said that Iran is a secure place despite being located in an area which is full of crisis and it is because the sacrifices made by the Iranian people. He said that for Iran, the US and Zionist regime are the same thing.
He also said that some countries have invested a lot in Afghanistan to promote a Sunni insurgency to fight forces of the former Soviet Union.
But the insurgency spilled over to other places in the region in an unending process until the Syrian crisis, he said.
“The same countries invested in Syria to support terrorists,” he added.
The expert on international affairs said Daesh (ISIS) was created to counter the Islamic Revolution. He expressed regret over attempts by some countries in the region aimed at countering the Islamic Revolution by supporting the Takfiri and terrorist groups which have been source of many crises and killings.
Shedding light on the developing situation in Afghanistan, Kharazi termed the involvement of Taliban in Afghanistan government necessary, saying that any such development will invalidate the legitimacy of the US longer presence in Afghanistan.
He stressed that Iran and Pakistan should join hand and work together in this regard as both countries have suffered extensively from the issue.
The US on the other hand, he argued, would want to extend its presence in Afghanistan as much as possible because this will help it keeping an eye on China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan.
Kharazi, elaborating on the relations between Tehran and New Delhi, said that any cooperation between Iran and India can never be against Pakistan.
Much the same way, no Pakistan alliance with Saudi Arabia can be made against Iran, he added.
He said that every country operates to serve its own interests and that Iran’s increasing relations with India were not going to hurt Pakistan in any way.
Kharrazi said that Pakistan and Iran enjoyed cultural, religious, geographical and historical ties and even their interests were not much dissimilar from each other.
It was thus necessary for the deep-rooted relations to be promoted to include the economic ones, which would provide significant momentum for the region’s economic growth.
The linking of Gwadar and Chabahar Port city was termed an important step by the Iranian former foreign minister that should be taken into regard.
Speaking about some of the disagreements between Iran and Pakistan, he said that none of those issues were very serious in nature, hence they should not be reflected on the policies of either country, Kharazi said.
Answering a question on foreign pressures on the Iran, he said that Iran is accustomed to outside pressures, including those from the United States and therefore we will continue our policy of trying to stand on our own feet.

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