Iran's foreign minister in Islamabad on two-day visit

ISLAMABAD: Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Monday arrived in Islamabad on two-day official visit to hold consultations with Pakistan’s leadership on the situation in the Middle East and bilateral relations.

During his visit, the Iranian FM will hold separate meetings with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar, according to a statement issued by the Foreign Office (FO).

“This visit provides an important opportunity to advance cooperation and dialogue between Pakistan and Iran on a wide range of areas including trade, energy and security,” it added.

Apart from discussions on the regional situation, one official told The News that the upcoming Islamic Summit in Saudi Arabia is also expected to be raised in Araghci’s meeting with Dar.

The situation at the Pak-Iran border is another issue on the bilateral agenda.

In January this year, relations between the two countries had turned sour after Islamabad, in retaliation to Tehran's cross-border strikes, carried out precision strikes using killer drones, rockets, loitering munitions and stand-off weapons to target terrorists inside Iranian territory.

Pakistan had even withdrawn its ambassador from Iran and announced that it would not allow the Iranian envoy visiting his home country at that time to return as a gesture of protest against the breach of its sovereignty by Iran.

The diplomatic ties, however, were soon restored with the ambassadors of the two countries returning to their respective posts.

Later in April, the then-Iranian president, late Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi, visited Pakistan to deepen bilateral cooperation.

However, 63-year-old Raisi alongside his foreign minister and six others died after their helicopter went down in the country’s mountainous northwest while returning from a dam inauguration on the border with Azerbaijan.