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Jawad Zarif arrived. PHOTO: EXPRESS
ISLAMABAD: Iranian Foreign Minister Jawad Zarif arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday after 14 Iranian security personnel, including Revolutionary Guards intelligence officers, were abducted on the volatile south-eastern border with Pakistan earlier this month.
Iran asks Pakistan to help secure border
Zarif is accompanied by a high-level delegation of Noor Khan Airbase. He later met his Pakistani counterpart Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and discussed matters related to regional security and mutual interest. It is his second visit to Pakistan after the new government came into power.
Zarif and Qureshi had been talking about the abduction of Iranian border guards after the incident on October 17.
The abduction caused friction between the two countries, as the Iranian foreign ministry summoned the Pakistani sent in Tehran to convey its concerns over the issue.
A statement issued by the Foreign Office said FM Quresh expressed his serious concern over the incident.
He also briefed Zarif regarding active efforts launched by the law enforcement agencies to ascertain the whereabouts of the Iranian guards, in coordination with the Iranian military and intelligence counterparts, the statement added.
Iran's spy officers among 14 security personnel kidnapped on Pakistan border
The directors-general of military operations are also in contact with the world, and they have also been working with the United States.
Foreign Minister Qureshi said that such incidents were "handiwork of our common enemies unhappy with the existing close, friendly relations between Pakistan and Iran".
Reaffirming Pakistan 's commitment to non – complying with the author' s efforts, Qureshi noted that Pakistan and Iran have traditionally shared a 'border of peace and friendship' which would be maintained in the same spirit.
Thanking the foreign minister, Zarif underscored Iran's desire to overcome all the obstacles with Pakistan in complete peace along the Pak-Iran border.
Meanwhile, the Iranian elite Revolutionary Guards said the kidnapped Iranian security personnel were unconscious at the time, following reports that they had eaten drugged food.
Iran's spy officers among 14 security personnel kidnapped on Pakistan border
An Iranian separatist group called Jaish al-Adl said it had been placed on the border with the Mirjaveh border post in Sistan-Balochistan province.
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