Ayatollah Khamenei said in a meeting with visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday that relations between Iran and Pakistan have seen ups and downs in recent years although he insisted there is an opportunity for a new upgrading of bilateral relations with a new government in office in Pakistan.
“Relations with Pakistan matters significantly to the Islamic Republic of Iran as it is considered a brotherly country,” he said in the meeting.
Ayatollah Khamenei said that the recent trip by late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to Pakistan can be a turning point in bilateral relations, adding that the current head of the Iranian Executive Mohammad Mokhber will pursue the path of cooperation and agreements between the two countries.
He said that friendly relations between brotherly countries won’t always progress easily as he called for obstacles in ties between Iran and Pakistan to be overcome through more seriousness in efforts aimed at expanding bilateral relations.
For his part, Sharif described late president Raisi’s visit to Pakistan as very helpful in efforts to expand relations between Iran and Pakistan.
The Pakistani prime minister, who arrived in Tehran earlier on Wednesday to attend president Raisi’s funeral, expressed hope that bilateral relations between Iran and Pakistan could further expand in the future.
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