The Hindu : Khatami to visit Pak.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 14, 2002

International

International

Khatami to visit Pak.

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD Dec. 13. The Iranian President, Mohammad Khatami, is arriving here on a two-day official visit on December 23 for discussions with the Pakistani side on a whole range of issues.

A simultaneous announcement on the visit is expected from here and Teheran tomorrow. The visit is important particularly from the Islamabad point of view in more than one way.

To begin with it is the first visit of any head of the state after the so-called transfer of power from the military to a civilian set-up.

The Iranian President visited Pakistan in 1997. Gen. Musharraf visited Iran in 2000. Pakistan and Iran have common concerns about the situation in Afghanistan.

As a country that has good relations with both India and Pakistan, Islamabad believes that Teheran is in a unique position to play a constructive role in repairing the strained ties between India and Pakistan.

Earlier this week the Pakistan Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri, told correspondents here that he had conveyed to his Iranian counterpart at the Afghan donors conference in Bonn that Islamabad is willing to give any kind of guarantees to India on the Iran-India gas pipeline.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

Stories in this Section

All de-escalation steps have come from India: France

We defeated 'enemy' without a war: Musharraf

Pressure on U.K. Govt. to crack down on Sangh Parivar outfits

Iraqi declaration full of holes: U.S.

Include disarming of LTTE in talks, says SLFP

E.U.: Turkey's hopes dashed

Genome map of Indica rice completed

Khatami to visit Pak.

Bush rebukes Lott on segregation remarks