Iran | Pakistan

• Shehbaz, Pezeshkian agree to boost bilateral trade, investment • PM expresses gratitude for Iran’s support amid tension with Delhi • Renews offer for talks with India on Kashmir, other issues • Meets Ayatollah Khamenei ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Iran on Monday rene­wed their commitment to permanent peace in South Asia, underlining that frie­ndly relations with neighbouring countries formed a core part of both nations’ foreign policy. The reaffirmation came during Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s meeting with Iranian President Dr Masoud Pezeshkian at a reception hosted at the Sa’dabad Palace in Tehran. The meeting took place during the prime minist­er’s official visit to Tur­k­iye, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, aimed at expre­ssing gratitude to fri­endly Muslim nations for their support during the recent Pakistan-India conflict. Both leaders resolved to enhance cooperation to boost bilateral trade and investment and work together to maintain peace and security in the region. View this post on Instagram Prim...

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif paid a courtesy call on His Eminence Sayyed Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran on Monday and discussed matters of bilateral and regional interest.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has arrived in Tehran on a two-day visit to Iran.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif said that the bilateral trade between Pakistan and Iran, which stood at $3 billion, would be taken to $10 billion in the next few years, as there was immense potential for growth.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Monday departed for Iran after concluding his two-day official visit to Turkiye.

Iran will not consider temporarily suspending uranium enrichment to secure a nuclear deal with the US, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday, adding that no date had yet been set for a sixth round of talks with Washington. The negotiations between Washington and Tehran aim to resolve a decades-long dispute over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and both sides have taken a tough stance in public over the issue of Iran’s uranium enrichment. Asked about reports that Iran could freeze enrichment for three years to reach an agreement, spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told a press conference: “Iran will never accept that.” Baghaei also ruled out the possibility of an interim nuclear deal with the US, dismissing media reports that a provisional agreement was being considered as a temporary step towards a final deal. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that US negotiators had “very good” talks with an Iranian delegation over the weekend. Iran is waiting for further details from mediator Oman regarding the timing of the...

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif will visit Turkiye, Iran, Azerbaijan, and Tajikistan from 25-30 May.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran would hold the United States responsible for any Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities, after US media reported that Israel was preparing for a strike. The report came even as Iran and the United States were set to meet in Rome on Friday for a fifth round of Omani-mediated nuclear talks. “We believe that in the event of any attack on the nuclear facilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Zionist regime (Israel), the US government will also be involved and bear legal responsibility,” Araghchi said in a letter to the United Nations published on Thursday. “Iran strongly warns against any adventurism by the Zionist regime and will respond decisively to any threat or unlawful act by this regime,” Araghchi added. On Tuesday, CNN reported that Israel was making preparations to strike Iranian nuclear facilities. The nuclear talks, which began on April 12, are the highest-level contact between the long-time foes since the United States in 2018 pulled out of a landmar...

Iran’s parliament approved a 20-year strategic partnership on Wednesday between Moscow and Tehran, state media reported. The agreement represents a deepening of bilateral ties, including closer defence cooperation. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian signed the strategic partnership document on January 17. The Russian legislative branch approved the pact in April. While the agreement does not include a mutual defence clause, it says both countries will work together against common military threats, develop their military-technical cooperation, and take part in joint exercises. Since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, Iran and Russia have deepened military ties, with Western countries accusing Iran of providing missiles and drones for Russian attacks on Ukraine. Tehran denies providing weapons for Russian use in Ukraine. The strategic pact also includes several clauses aimed at boosting economic partnership, notably by strengthening direct interbank cooperation ...

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that nuclear talks with the United States were unlikely to yield any results, amid a diplomatic standoff over the Islamic republic’s enrichment activities. “We don’t think it will lead to any outcome. We don’t know what will happen,” said Khamenei during a speech, adding that denying Iran’s right to enrich uranium was “a big mistake”. Iran and the US have held four rounds of Omani-mediated nuclear talks since April 12, the highest-level contact between the two foes since Washington abandoned the 2015 nuclear accord. The two sides had confirmed plans to hold another round of discussions during the latest meeting on May 11, which Tehran described as “difficult but useful”, while a US official said Washington was “encouraged”. Iran currently enriches uranium to 60per cent, far above the 3.67pc limit set in the 2015 deal but below the 90pc needed for a nuclear warhead. Western countries, including the US, have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire ato...

A Saudi airline has resumed flights for Iranian Haj pilgrims to the kingdom for the first time in a decade, the latest sign of the warming ties between the countries. “Flynas resumed Iranian pilgrims flights from Imam Khomeini (airport) in Tehran on Saturday,” a Saudi civil aviation authority official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official said flights would also be added from Mashhad in Iran, allowing more than 35,000 pilgrims to travel to Saudi Arabia on the airline. Flynas is a budget airline based in Saudi Arabia, which operates domestic and international routes. The official stressed that the flights were not commercial and were only for the Haj pilgrimage. The Haj is due to begin during the first week of June, and pilgrims from across the globe have already begun pouring into Saudi Arabia. Screengrab of the flight from Jeddah to Tehran. — FlightRadar24 Shiite-dominated Iran and Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia resumed relations in March 2023 under a surprise China-brokered deal after a se...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry have lauded Iran’s peace efforts in the recent Pakistan-India conflict and warned of “forces” seeking to create a rift among the two brotherly countries. Just two days after India, without any evidence, blamed Pakistan over last month’s deadly attack in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam, Iran had offered to mediate between the two as tensions escalated. A press release from the PM’s Office said the premier had a telephonic conversation with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. “During their warm and cordial conversation, the prime minister conveyed his warm regards to Supreme Leader Ayatullah Khamenei and thanked President Pezeshkian for Iran’s sincere and brotherly diplomatic efforts to defuse tensions in South Asia. He particularly thanked the president for his telephone call to the prime minister last month as well as for sending Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to the region during the crisis,” the PMO...

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Donald Trump on Saturday of lying when the US president said during his Gulf tour this week that he wanted peace in the region. On the contrary, said Khamenei, the United States uses its power to give “10-ton bombs to the Zionist (Israeli) regime to drop on the heads of Gaza’s children”. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after departing the United Arab Emirates on Friday that Iran had to move quickly on a US proposal for its nuclear programme or “something bad’s going to happen”. Earlier on Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Trump speaks about peace while simultaneously making threats. “Which should we believe?” Pezeshkian said at a naval event in Tehran. “On the one hand, he speaks of peace and on the other, he threatens with the most advanced tools of mass killing.” Tehran would continue Iran-US nuclear talks but is not afraid of threats. “We are not seeking war,” Pezeshkian said. His remarks, said Khamenei, “aren’t even worth resp...

DG ISPR Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry commended Iran’s efforts in promoting peace amid rising tensions between India and Pakistan following the recent Pahalgam attack.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the United States was getting very close to securing a nuclear deal with Iran, and Tehran had “sort of” agreed to the terms. “We’re in very serious negotiations with Iran for long-term peace,” Trump said on a tour of the Gulf, according to a shared pool report by AFP. “We’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this … there [are] two steps to doing this, there is a very, very nice step and there is the violent step, but I don’t want to do it the second way,” he said. An Iranian source familiar with the negotiations said there were still gaps to bridge in the talks with the United States. Fresh talks between Iranian and US negotiators to resolve disputes over Tehran’s nuclear programme ended in Oman on Sunday with further negotiations planned, officials said, as Tehran publicly insisted on continuing its uranium enrichment. Though Tehran and Washington have both said they prefer diplomacy to resolve the decades-long nuclear dispute, they remai...

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Saturday that if the United States’ goal is to deprive Iran of its “nuclear rights”, Tehran will never back down over those rights. Araqchi was speaking in Doha a day ahead of another round of planned nuclear talks between Iran and the U.S. in Oman. “If the goal of the […]

Iran called on Britain on Wednesday to provide clarification and consular access after British police said they had arrested seven Iranian nationals on suspicion of “terrorism offences”. Britain’s interior minister Yvette Cooper said the arrests of the seven and another person came amid heightened concerns about Iranian activities on UK soil. In a post on […]

TEHRAN: Firefighters have brought under control a blaze at Iran’s main port, following a deadly explosion blamed on negligence, authorities in the Islamic republic said. The explosion, heard dozens of kilometres (miles) away, hit a dock at the southern port of Shahid Rajaee on Saturday. At least 70 people were killed and more than 1,000 […]

Firefighters have brought under control a blaze at Iran’s main port, following a deadly explosion blamed on negligence, authorities in the Islamic republic said. The explosion, heard dozens of kilometres away, hit a dock at the southern port of Shahid Rajaee on Saturday. At least 70 people were killed and more than 1,000 others suffered injuries in the blast and ensuing the fire, which also caused extensive damage, state media reported. Red Crescent official Mokhtar Salahshour told the channel late on Monday that the fire had been “contained” and a clean-up was underway. State television aired live footage on Tuesday showing thick smoke rising from stacked containers. Iran’s IRNA news agency quoted Hossein Zafari, spokesman for the country’s crisis management organisation, as saying the situation had improved significantly since Monday. However, “the operation and complete extinguishing process may take around 15 to 20 days”, Zafari added. Iran’s customs authority said port operations had returned to normal, ...

ISLAMABAD - Iran has offered to mediate between Pakistan and India to de-escalate tensions over Pahalgam attack.