ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan believes that there must be no room for mistrust and misunderstanding in Iran-Pakistan unique, brotherly ties.
In an interview with Iranian news agency, he stressed the need for improving the level of Pakistan, Iran relationship to a level where it could reflect the very strong feelings of brotherhood between people of the two countries.
On his recent meeting with Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani, Nisar said, ‘The main subject of the meeting with the Iranian top official was reviving the spirit of brotherhood and friendship in ties between Pakistan and Iran, which is a unique relation.’
“Iran, Pakistan relations are not just like normal routine diplomatic relations, but relations between two neighbors, two brothers in faith and two allies and we need to strengthen that. So I have had very good discussion with Iran’s Shamkhani and there will be quite tangible manifestation of these discussions in the next few weeks and months to come,” he said.
“I think issues like economic cooperation, cooperation in the security areas, border issues, they will be resolved, the important issue is to remove the mistrust and misunderstandings which I feel have come into the relationship of the two countries,” he viewed.
He said that both Iran and Pakistan are addressing the border issues and are having frequent meetings at the operational and political levels.
“But having said that it is a huge border, almost 1000 kilometer border, it is a porous border. There are lots of smugglers, gun-running, other people who go across, whether it is from the Iranian side or Pakistan side; it is almost impossible to fully monitor each and every point and corner of the 1000-kilometer border but we are addressing it and there is an improvement, he said.
Chaudhry Nisar said that the situation on borders got pretty bad over the last few years, because there was lack of trust, absence of understanding and absence of the interaction between the two countries.
“We look forward to increasing our interaction and our cooperation in both sides of the border line and a lot of other areas which are important for both countries,” he said.
He went on to say that objective of close and strong Pak-Iran relations, is to fight all common enemies whether they are terrorists or other actors, internal or external.
“On the issue of Daesh, it is a Middle Eastern outfit. No Middle Eastern outfit with the name of Daesh exists in Pakistan, but certain local terrorist organizations may be seeking inspiration or may be having some kind of interaction with Daesh but this terrorist group as a Middle Eastern organization has no footprint in Pakistan,” said the minister.
To a question on the US dissatisfaction of Pakistan’s performance in fighting terrorism, he said, ‘We are not accountable to the US. We are very clear about what we are going to do and what we are doing is in the interest of Pakistan and the interest of Pakistan lies in the fact that we must do everything to eliminate all kinds of terrorism. Terrorist of all kinds and colours will be eliminated from the soil of Pakistan.
