FO says Interior Minister Naqvi visiting Iran to discuss bilateral ties, regional security and stability

Islamabad (Web Desk): The Foreign Office (FO) has said that Pakistan is continuing its diplomatic engagement with friendly and brotherly countries to help ease tensions in the Middle East and the Gulf and find a peaceful solution to the crisis.

Addressing his weekly media briefing in Islamabad, FO Spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said that Islamabad is making every possible effort to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table under the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), with the objective of creating a path towards lasting peace and stability in the region.

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He said Pakistan would keep using both direct and indirect diplomatic channels to deal with those seeking to undermine the process and would support efforts to keep meaningful dialogue alive so that all unresolved matters could be addressed.

Commenting on the attack involving a commercial ship in the Red Sea, Andrabi said Pakistan stands for the freedom of navigation and the protection of maritime security on international waterways in line with international law.

He said Pakistan is among the signatories of the maritime coalition announced by Saudi Arabia and reaffirmed Islamabad's readiness to work with Riyadh and other coalition members to put the coalition's communique into practice. 

The FO spokesperson said that the initiative is intended to protect maritime movement and ensure the uninterrupted and secure functioning of global supply chains.

On the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement, he clarified that the pact is purely defensive in nature and is designed to enable member states to work collectively against threats and security challenges. He said the agreement is also consistent with the aspirations of the Pakistani people.

Responding to comments by the spokesperson of India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) regarding Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Andrabi dismissed the statements as unfounded.

He said India's intentional amplification and politicization of recent developments in AJK was deceptive and appeared aimed at shifting attention away from the realities prevailing in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

The FO spokesperson said that rather than making such statements over AJK, India would be “well advised to honour commitments made by its founding fathers and uphold the right of the people of IIOJK to freely determine their future through a United Nations (UN) plebiscite in accordance with relevant UN Security Council resolutions”.