Iran welcomes Pakistan's efforts for promoting peace in region

President Hassan Rouhani had a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday evening.

During the meeting, President Rouhani referred to the fragile conditions of the region, saying, "In the current conditions, we must all cooperate with each other to establish peace and stability and ease tensions."

Rouhani stressed that Iran is willing to have close relations with all regional countries, adding, "We believe that division in the Islamic community is not beneficial to anyone and we fully welcome Pakistan's efforts for promoting regional peace and stability in this regard."

The Iranian president also expressed gratitude for Islamabad's solidarity with Tehran regarding the recent crash of Ukrainian Airlines flight 752 in Iran and Washington's assassination of Lieutenant General Qasem Soleimani last week.

"The leaders of the United States and the Israeli regime, along with leaders of terrorist groups around the world such as ISIL, were happy with the assassination of Soleimani," Rouhani said.

"However, people who seek peace and security in the region were saddened [by the incident]', he added, calling on "all countries to firmly condemn Washington's act of government terrorism."

Rouhani stressed that in the "current circumstances" all sides need to "cooperate in deescalating tensions in the region."

For his part, Qureshi vowed that Islamabad will not allow his country's borders to be used to threaten Iran and that Pakistan regards itself as "a partner in the peace and stability" of Tehran.

"We believe that that the borders between the two countries are borders of peace and friendship," he said, adding that Islamabad was determined to deal with those seeking to create insecurity in the border area.

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