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Pezeshkian's recent visit to Pakistan to usher in 'new chapter' in ties: Foreign Ministry

Iran Press TV

Monday, 04 August 2025 9:43 AM

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has lauded President Masoud Pezeshkian's recent two-day visit to Pakistan for its standing to usher in a "new chapter" in the neighboring nations' relations, echoing the chief executive's own positive appraisal of the trip.

"The President's visit to Pakistan was of great significance," Esmaeil Baghaei said during a weekly press conference on Monday, addressing Pezeshkian's trip that had wound up earlier.

Baghaei cited the countries' decision to pursue free trade on the back of a relevant agreement as a high point of the trip, saying the accord's details still had to be discussed between the two sides.

During the visit, 12 documents were signed in various fields, including the economy, trade, tourism, customs, and culture, he added.

The official said Iran served as the first country to recognize Pakistan upon its foundation and pointed to the friendly and brotherly ties that have been fostered between the two sides ever since.

"Throughout the years, relations have remained strong, both at the government level and between the two peoples. Iran attaches great importance to its ties with Pakistan."

'Pakistan equally wary of Zionist expansionism'

The official reiterated President Pezeshkian's remarks throughout the visit, saying the Islamic Republic also commended Pakistan's consistent stance of denouncing the Israeli regime's now-22-month-old war of genocide on the Gaza Strip.

This "reflects Pakistan's principled approach towards the rule of law and its awareness of the dangers posed by Zionist expansionism," he stated.

Trilateral Iran-Pakistan-Turkey ties

Pezeshkian's visit, Baghaei added, also addressed the issue of tripartite cooperation among the two countries and Turkey.

The spokesman noted that the cooperation dates back to the 1960s, when the trio set up the Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD), adding that the body was later transformed into the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), which was established in the 1980s.

The threefold nations, therefore, enjoyed not only historical ties, but also institutional ones, the official said.

Although the trio began centering their cooperation on the economy, Baghaei remarked, they could build up on the precedence to extend their relations to "other areas, whether political and security-related or cultural and regional."

'UK in no position to question Iran's nuclear program'

Elsewhere in his remarks, the spokesperson responded to recent remarks made by British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, in which the latter had cast doubts concerning the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear energy program.

"The reality is that he is in no position to cast [such] doubt...unless such remarks are merely considered to be a form of political and interventionist posturing."

Baghaei continued, "If he considers the International Atomic Energy Agency a competent and credible authority, then naturally, he must also accept its official reports," noting that the watchdog itself had failed to locate any diversion in the program towards non-conventional purposes.

He said such statements only reflected Britain's own political stance and showed that the European trio of the UK, France, and Germany "no longer believe in their membership" in the 2015 nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic.

"If they did, they would revisit the agreement's text and also United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231 [that has endorsed it], which confirms and endorses Iran's peaceful nuclear program, including its right to enrichment."

In addition to Lammy's remarks, Baghaei was referring to similar comments that have been made on recurrent occasions by Lammy's French and German counterparts.

'Whatever plan that includes enrichment warrants Iran's attention'

Baghaei also addressed recent remarks by Iran's former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in which the latter had proposed the formation of a regional consortium hosting uranium enrichment.

"The idea of a consortium is not new," having appeared in past negotiations without entering practical phases, the spokesman said.

"Enrichment in Iran, as an inseparable part of the Islamic Republic's rights under the [Nuclear] Non-Proliferation Treaty, is of paramount importance," and any plan that secures this "will be open to our consideration," he added.

'Compensation indispensible part of any future talks with US'

The spokesperson, meanwhile, reiterated that any future talks with the United States would indispensably address the issue of the Islamic Republic's demand for compensation from the US over the latter's assisting the Israeli regime in Tel Aviv's war on Iran in June, and Washington's own military attacks on the Iranian soil towards the end of the war.

He said future talks - if those talks are ever possible - would "certainly differ from those before June 13," referring to the date when Tel Aviv launched the act of aggression.

He criticized those dismissing this approach as legally uninformed and said international law holds violators responsible, citing past International Court of Justice rulings against the US's intervention in Nicaragua and Washington's actions against Iranian oil platforms.

On new US sanctions against Iranian individuals and shipping companies, Baghaei said the move "is absolutely contrary to international law" and disrupts global trade, but added, "We have learned how to preserve our country despite unlawful and oppressive sanctions."