Eurasia Press & News
TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- In a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart here on Thursday, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Mian Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri responded to the questions posed by reporters.
He said that his visit to Tehran came within the framework of mutual relations adding that Iran and Pakistan have many subjects to address and therefore they consult and negotiate with one another everywhere in the world that they can.
The Pakistani top diplomat further stated that Afghanistan is of vital importance to Pakistan and that instability in Afghanistan will directly affect the security of the regional states.
He said that Pakistan is host to 3 million Afghan refugees and expressed hope that the Afghan refugees will return home prestigiously adding that Pakistan has called on the international community to extend support to the Afghan government for the realization of this goal.
Pakistani foreign minister then made reference to the construction of Iran-India natural gas pipeline via Pakistan and laid emphasis on the point that the pipeline has been rightly named peace pipeline.
He then spoke of his meeting with the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Kermanshah province of Iran on Wednesday and stated that the Iranian president is very much interested in the construction of the peace pipeline and the experts from Iran, Pakistan and India have been assigned to further examine the case in January 2007.
Pakistani foreign minister reiterated that he has had useful meetings and negotiations with the Iranian officials concerning Iraq and Lebanon issues adding that Pakistan condemns sectarian conflicts everywhere in the Islamic states.
To conclude his words, Kasuri said that the two states expect to raise the level of their trade ties to the margin of USD1b per annum.
