Rohani arrives, calls for a new Pak-Iran engagement
Gas pipeline from Iran is likely to figure high on visit agenda
islamabad — Iran’s Hassan Rohani arrived on Friday in Pakistan on a landmark visit, his first since becoming president, at a time when Saudi Arabia is courting Islamabad to increase participation in a new Saudi-led military alliance of Muslim nations, a coalition perceived by Tehran as an anti-Shia block.
Pakistan has traditionally close ties with Saudi Arabia, which is not at good terms with Iran. The kingdom accuses Tehran of supporting Houthi rebels in Yemen against the internationally recognised president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
Saudi Arabia has been leading a coalition of mostly Gulf Arab states in a blistering air-campaign against the Houthis in the conflict in Yemen, widely seen as a proxy SaudiIran war.
Rohani’s visit is also a landmark moment for Iran, after international sanctions in the wake of the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
“This visit means a lot,” said Imtiaz Gul, executive director of the Islamabad-based Centre for Research and Security Studies, add- ing that Pakistan is still “ambivalent” about its participation in the new Saudi-led alliance.
On the eve of his visit, Rohani said that “constructive relations with neighbours and the Islamic world are at the priority list of our foreign policy.”
“Destabilisation of others causes everlasting conflicts that benefit nobody,” he said in a veiled reference to Saudi Arabia. “I believe that at this crucial moment of the history of relations between the two countries, it is essential that Pakistan and Iran lay the cornerstone of a new bilateral engagement based on the mutual interests of the two countries,” Rohani added in his statement.
Rohani’s visit is also expected to discuss a gas pipeline from Iran, through Pakistan to India. Work has stalled on the Iran-Pakistan section, which was designed to help Pakistan meet its energy needs. Iran has invested over $2 billion in the project, but Pakistan has yet to finish construction on its half of the pipeline.
Washington has for years threatened Pakistan over the gas project due to international sanctions on Iran which have now been lifted. —