ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan says it welcomes the historic nuclear deal reached between the Islamic Republic of Iran and major world powers under which Tehran will be granted sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
Earlier in the day, Iran and six major powers including the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany reached a comprehensive agreement in Vienna to settle a decade-old dispute over Iran’s nuclear program after clearing final obstacles.
“Pakistan has consistently maintained that the Iran nuclear issue should be peacefully resolved through dialogue,” the Foreign Office Spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said in a statement issued in Islamabad on Tuesday.
The spokesman said that as a neighbouring country, Pakistan has also reiterated that reciprocal confidence-building measures relating to Iran’s nuclear program auger well for peace and security in our region.
“We look forward to the expeditious and smooth implementation of the provisions of the comprehensive nuclear agreement by all its signatories,” Qazi Khalilullah said.
Under the deal, the United Nations inspectors will be allowed to press for visits to Iranian military sites as part of their monitoring duties. However, Iran would have the right to challenge the UN request and an arbitration board composed of Iran and the six world powers that negotiated with it would have to decide on the issue.
Meanwhile in an interview, the Prime Minister’s Advisor on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has expressed the confidence that after lifting of economic sanctions, Iran would integrate with regional and global economic markets and this would benefit different countries including Pakistan.
The advisor pointed out that before sanctions bilateral trade between Pakistan and Iran had reached $2 billion which came down to just $300 million. He said that the lifting of sanctions would also help boost bilateral trade between the two countries.
Sartaj Aziz said that there is great demand for Pakistani goods in Iran but mode of payment was the biggest hurdle because of sanctions on Iran. In addition, he said that the deal would also help achieve progress on Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project.
