“Never on the table.” That was how Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif described Iran’s ballistic missile programme in relation to the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding. Speaking Tuesday at a joint press conference with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, he said the subject was also “never on the agenda” while the deal was negotiated.
Sharif then took a position on the weapons themselves. There should be no double standards, he said: “some countries should not have ballistic missiles while Iran should not.” He was affirming Iran’s right to them.
A brief visit with full honours
Pezeshkian flew in for a short trip at Sharif’s invitation, a day after Iran and the United States held high-level talks in Switzerland. He got a guard of honour at the Prime Minister House and a 21-gun salute on arrival. A squadron of Pakistan Air Force JF-17 Thunder jets flew a ceremonial salute. At the airport he was met by President Asif Ali Zardari, Sharif, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and several other ministers, and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party. Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi was part of the delegation.
Field Marshal Asim Munir, Pakistan’s Chief of Defence Forces, also called on the Iranian president, the military’s ISPR said. Munir and Sharif had both sat in on the direct US-Iran talks in Switzerland over the weekend, where the two sides discussed a framework for regional peace. The war between the two countries began on February 28, when US-Israeli strikes hit Iranian cities.
What Sharif and Pezeshkian said
Sharif credited the Islamabad MoU with opening the way to a ceasefire. He thanked Iran’s leadership for trusting Pakistan as a mediator. “As brothers, we will never let you down,” he said. He passed his regards to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, whose leadership he said had made “a ceasefire with dignity and honor” possible.
He offered condolences for Iranian civilians killed in the conflict, “including children, whose numbers have reached into the thousands.” And he warned of those who would like to see the truce fail. “There is no dearth of spoilers around the globe,” he said, adding that he and Pezeshkian were “completely resolved to remain iron walls against those spoilers.”
Sharif also commended the Iranian and American delegations for their part in the technical talks in Switzerland. He thanked the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt for backing the peace effort.
Pezeshkian called for a new regional security architecture for Western Asia and the Persian Gulf, built on dialogue and mutual respect. He described Pakistan’s part in de-escalation as “responsible and visionary.” Quoting the poet Allama Muhammad Iqbal, he said: “The two nations do not merely live next to each other; they share a common destiny in their aspirations, concerns and hopes.”
The two governments also went through bilateral ties, including trade, energy, border security and regional connectivity.
Sources
Sources
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