Tehran - Senator Rehman Malik emphasising importance of Iran-Pakistan border cooperation has called upon the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan to promote bilateral relations with Iran in all areas.

Rehman Malik in an exclusive interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said that the government of Pakistan should keep good relationship with Iran.

He said that Iran and Pakistan are two neighboring countries which have been enjoying lovely relationship. “When I was interior minister, we were in such a good terms that we used to visit Iran a lot,” he recalled.

“I also had an opportunity to meet the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei who is very simple and a man of wisdom,” he noted.

Rehman Malik added, ‘The government of Pakistan should keep good relationship with Iran and I am glad that the visit of the Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif went very well and I hope that Pakistan government would play a prominent role not only to keep good relationship between Iran and Pakistan but also we should try to reduce tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia also.’

“We should behave like one Ummah instead of having polarisation within us,” noted the Parliamentarian.

To a question about Iran’s nuclear deal with the Western powers and the US’s decision to withdraw from it, he said once the deal was done after so much handwork, withdrawing from it is not a wise decision. “Normally international agreements are not revoked the way the JCPOA was revoked by the US,” Malik stated.

Replying to a question that Iran and Pakistan being two major Islamic countries have been under constant pressure by the Western powers, the lawmaker said that Pakistan has been very unlucky that despite giving full support to the West and the USm the country is still suffering and terrorism because of American war in Afghan has spread to Pakistan.

“Justice has not been done to us despite we have lost 70,000 civilians and I think that the commitment made by the West to us should have been fulfilled,” said the politician.

Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Interior answering a question on Iran-Pakistan border security and stopping terrorists from exploiting the border to carry out their activities said when he was the interior minister he inspected the joint border by himself and was surprised to see that there was no fence on the border. “We have to regulate the border and make sure there is no entry without a passport,” said the former interior minister. He said that both Iran and Pakistan should think together and work out a doable way to control the border.

“We are fencing the Afghan border so why this could not be done on Pak-Iran border,” added the Senator. He said that earlier we had enhanced patrolling from both the sides to secure the border so we should continue in the same manner and help each other.

To a question about Pakistan’s possible a role in normalizing Iran-Saudi ties the lawmaker said Pakistan treats every country equally, yes Saudi crown prince visited Pakistan and we welcome that but I cannot ignore that Iranian foreign minister also came to Pakistan and he was accorded respect and honor in Pakistan.