Iranian-US tension prevailed over the agenda of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Islamabad, where the Tehran official held consultations with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Mehmood Shah Qureshi on regional developments and economic relations under the US sanctions.
Qureshi said Pakistan would maintain reconciliation efforts to ensure peace and stability, stressing that regional tension would be in nobody’s interest. The Iranian foreign minister, for his part, said his country valued Pakistan’s efforts to bring peace to the region.
Zarif is on a two-day visit to Pakistan, before heading for Baghdad. His consultations precede an emergency meeting of the Arab League next week at the invitation of Saudi Arabia to discuss the growing tensions in the Gulf region.
The Iranian foreign minister said he had held talks in Islamabad on US actions against Iran, including “the economic war.” He emphasized that the US Donald Trump administration was practicing “economic terrorism” over his country.
In parallel, Japanese sources said that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe intends to visit Iran soon, probably in mid-June. If conducted, it will be the first visit by a Japanese prime minister to Iran in four decades, amid international concern over the growing tension between Tehran and Washington.
The report on plans for a visit by Abe comes a week after Zarif visited Japan and met the prime minister and Foreign Minister Taro Kono.
NHK Japanese agency said Abe was likely to discuss his plan for a Tehran visit with US President Donald Trump when the latter visits Japan from Saturday, and a final decision might rest on the results of that.
