Raisi lands in Islamabad on fence-mending visit

PESHAWAR (Pajhwok): Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi landed in Islamabad on Monday on a three-day official visit for talks with senior Pakistani leaders.

Raisi is the first head of state after the February 8 general elections in Pakistan, where he is due to meet President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other officials.

On arrival at the Islamabad airport, Raisi was accorded a warm welcome by Housing Minister Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada and Pakistan’s Ambassador to Iran Mudassir Tipu.

The Foreign Office said: “The Iranian president is accompanied by his spouse and a high-level delegation comprising the foreign minister, other members of the cabinet and senior officials.”

IRNA reported Raisi would visit several Pakistani cities to meet a number of religious scholars, elites and businesspeople there.

The visit will also take him to Lahore, the cultural capital of Pakistan. At the Prime Minister House in Islamabad, he was given a guard of honour.

Raisi will attend the signing ceremony for memorandums of understanding between the two countries for cooperation in different spheres.

In January, Pakistan and Iran exchanged tit-for-tat missile strikes on alleged terror hideouts, fuelling tensions in the region. The neighbours had then traded allegations of sheltering insurgents.

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