Envoy Calls Pakistan’s Security That of Iran

In an interview with Geo News on Tuesday, Mehdi Honardoost, said, “Iran is a time-tested friend of Pakistan and the security and stability of Pakistan is that of Iran.”

“It is for the first time that before being discussed between security authorities of the two countries, an issue was leaked to media. We have reservations over it which have been conveyed to our Pakistani brothers,” he said, referring to the arrest of the alleged spy, Kulbhushan Jadhav, in Pakistan’s violence-plagued province of Baluchistan who had been reportedly “entered the country from Iran”.

Islamabad arrested him last month, saying that Jadhav was working for India’s main external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

Pakistan also claimed that the Indian agent has confessed to “spying against Pakistan from Iran”.

Stressing that unidentified elements are not happy with good ties between Iran and Pakistan and are trying to undermine them, Honardoost said, “Both sides reached to this fact that some factors tried to deteriorate and misuse this atmosphere, all of Pakistani brothers emphasized there are no different views about security measures between the two countries.

“If there is even a slight signal of security issue, Pakistan security authorities can talk to their Iranian counterparts. They have very good relations; Iran would never allow its soil to be used against Pakistan.”

Earlier, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said that the arrest of the spy “has nothing to do” with Iran.

“Iran has nothing to do with the activities of Indian intelligence network. Pakistan and Iran are tied through decade long religious, social, cultural and political bonds, and nothing can come in way of our relations,” Nisar Ali Khan said on Sunday.

The latest developments came after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani visited Pakistan last month and signed an agreement to increase annual trade volume between the two countries to $5 billion by 2021.