Prime minister of Pakistan visiting Iran after trading political blows
The attack came as the US and other countries are attending meetings in Warsaw that are widely seen as part of an attempt to confront Iran in the region.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFA member of military units of the IRGC Ground Force fires a rocket launcher as they launched war games in the Gulf, December 22, 2018(photo credit: HAMED MALEKPOUR/TASNIM NEWS AGENCY VIA REUTERS)
The prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan went on his first official visit to Iran this Sunday after the two countries have been feuding in the past month after terror attacks in both states.Khan visited the Iranian city of Mashhan, home to the shrine of Imam Reza, according to state television. After the Sunday tour, Khan is expected to visit Tehran to hold talks with President Hassan Rouhani, as well as other top officials.The aim of the trip was to "develop ties between the two countries, especially those related to regional cooperation in fighting terrorism and safeguarding borders," according to state television.Iran-Pakistan share a large border which is normally over-run by violence and have seen many attacks coming from both sides of the border on security forces - Baluchistan is the area where most of these attacks occur.Iranian state media said that up to 27 members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed when a terrorists carried out a suicide bombing of bus in southeast Iran. Video showed a bus mangled alongside a road at night. There were up to “thirty martyrs,” Fars News said as the casualties appeared to increase throughout the evening.The attack came as the US and other countries are attending meetings in Warsaw that are widely seen as part of an attempt to confront Iran in the region.Relations between Pakistan and Iran have been strained in recent months after the suicide bombing killed members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards in mid-February in a southeastern region, with Iranian officials saying the attackers were based inside Pakistan.The Sunni group Jaish al Adl (Army of Justice), which says it seeks greater rights and better living conditions for the ethnic Baloch minority, claimed responsibility for that attack.Iran's Shi'ite Muslim authorities say militant groups operate from safe havens in Pakistan and have repeatedly called on the neighbouring country to crack down on them.Ethnic Baloch people straddle the porous and lengthy Iran-Pakistan border, with many insurgent groups crisscrossing the border to the annoyance of authorities.
Qureshi said Pakistan has decide to fence the border, just as it has started fencing its frontier with Afghanistan."The work has already started from the points that are frequently misused," Qureshi said. "We intend to seal this whole border which spreads to 950 kilometres, gradually."The two countries have been trading political blows ever since these attacks, and the meeting this week will have hopes of reconcilitian written upon it.
