Advisor to Pakistan's PM on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz who is visiting Tehran met Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan at the headquarter office of Iran's Defense Ministry in Tehran on Tuesday in the afternoon. The two officials exchanged views on bilateral, regional, and international issues.
“The security of Iran is interwoven with Pakistan’s and according to the same fact the Islamic Republic of Iran bears no limit in developing military and defense cooperation with Pakistan,” asserted the Iranian General after highlighting numerous cultural, historic, religious, and shared-borderlines commonalities between the two countries.
“Today, one of the big sources of concern in the Islamic world is the undergoing situation in Islamic countries like Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan,” asserted Dehghan. “We believe that the current crises are not solvable via militancy and should be addressed through political ways and negotiation.”
He voiced regret that Pakistan was hit by attacks and destabilizing measures of terrorists groups, some events occurred in the shared borderlines of the two countries, some regional countries go after developing war in the region, and some others are after divisive policies in the region. “We hold that Pakistan, a country with 200 million population, can play a more effective role in establishing peace and stability in the region.”
Mr. Dehghan attributed the phenomenon of terrorism in the region to the intervention of some foreign countries and the supporters of extremism and added that, “invasion and imposing power to topple local governments of legal authority (a reference to the efforts of some countries to overthrow the legally elected president of Syria) would entail heavy consequences for the other countries of the region and spread instability and insecurity to the regions and even to those countries who had earlier supported the terrorists for their interests.”
The Pakistani top diplomat, in the meeting, for his part, voiced his satisfaction with meeting the Iranian defense minister and elaborated on broad areas of commonalities between the two countries as a good context for developing the good ties between the two countries.
“We hope to exchange military delegation with Tehran to bolster defense and military cooperation, interaction, and relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” affirmed the Pakistani official after listing neighborliness and development of ties with Iran as the top priorities of Pakistan’s foreign policy toward Iran.
“We can overcome the problems and crises with unity of Muslims and cooperation between the countries of the region,” reaffirmed Mr. Aziz underlining Pakistan’s firm determination to counter terrorist groups especially the ISIL.
YNG/3913789