ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will depart for Tehran on Friday to attend the funeral prayers of the late Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Hussain Andrabi said.
Addressing his weekly press briefing in Islamabad on Thursday, Andrabi said that the prime minister will be accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and other members of the federal cabinet
Andrabi said that PM Shehbaz will attend the funeral prayers of the late supreme leader and reaffirm Pakistan’s solidarity with and support for the brotherly country.
Khamenei was martyred on February 28, the first day of Israeli and US strikes on Iran. His funeral is set to begin in Tehran on July 4, with burial scheduled for July 9 in his hometown of Mashhad, according to Iranian state media.
The spokesperson said that after completing his visit to Iran, the prime minister will depart for Turkiye at the invitation of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He said that PM Shehbaz is scheduled to address a business conference in Istanbul during his trip.
US-Iran talks
The spokesperson also touched upon the indirect US-Iran talks in Doha. Andrabi said that Pakistani mediators held separate meetings with US and Iranian negotiators, where “positive progress” was made on various aspects of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
He said that the parties agreed to continue the negotiation process and hold the next round of talks at the earliest opportunity.
“Pakistan, alongside Qatar, will continue to facilitate the negotiations,” he added.
The spokesperson added that DPM Dar remained engaged with the foreign ministers and senior leaders of Saudi Arabia, China, Bahrain, Iran, the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Leave a Reply