Nothing can spoil Iran, Pakistan brotherly ties: Iran envoy

Talking to Pakistani state television (PTV), Mehdi Honardoost said for seven decades Iran and Pakistan have stood with each other during hardships and the relations with Pakistan is priority for Iran.

'We have been enjoying very good and brotherly relations throughout the history and everybody knows that there is no gap or rift between Iran and Pakistan, though sometimes there may be small events but everybody knows that two countries and the leaders of the two countries look their relations as precious and valuable one and no incident can have any negative impact on the brotherly relations,' he said.

'When I say that the two countries have very good and strong relations, it doesn’t mean that there is absolutely no misunderstanding between the two countries as you can find issues even between two brothers.'

Commenting on the recent Arab-US summit in Riyadh, the ambassador said: Riyadh summit was not in the interest of the Muslim community and there was nothing positive towards the unity among the Muslim world in the conference. It is clear that some foreign powers tried to create more gap among the Muslim brothers through this conference.

Responding to a question on Pakistan's membership in the Saudi-led military alliance, Honardoost said: 'We have never tried to interfere in the internal affairs of any country, especially our brothers in Pakistan, but we want to make it clear to our Pakistani brothers that this is not an alliance against terrorism and even some countries of the coalition are providing facilities to Daesh terrorists.

The diplomat said Iran believes that the only way to cut the interference of superpowers in the region is that the countries of the region must come together and solve their problems on their own.

Commenting on Chabahar and Gwadar ports of Iran and Pakistan, the diplomat said: 'Chabahar and Gwadar should have sisterhood relations. The two ports will be more active and efficient through reciprocal cooperation.'

Responding to a question, he said Iran believes that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is not only a trade project, but when functional, it can help solve many problems in the region. Iran with huge potentials have already announced its readiness to join the CPEC,” he said.

He said that Pakistan is 'our neighbor and a very important country for us. Any positive development in Pakistan will have positive outcomes for us, too'.

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