Copy in clipboard...
Tehran, Islamabad bent on tightening border security: MP
Staff writer
Officials of Iran and Pakistan are determined to remove insecurity in border areas between the two countries by improving their security cooperation, said a member of the Iran-Pakistan Parliamentary Friendship Group.
In an interview with Iran Daily, Malek Fazeli maintained that strengthening bilateral trade ties as well as economic and energy cooperation lays the groundwork for increasing border security.
He cited the Iranian president’s recent visit to the southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan Province and meeting with his Pakistani counterpart, where the two jointly inaugurated an electricity transmission line and the first of six border markets, as an example of such cooperation.
“The launch of the Pishin-Mand border market in the presence of the presidents of Iran and Pakistan was symbolically significant as well since it indicated years of friendship between the two nations and the will to form new economic and trade cooperation,” Fazeli stated.
“Opening border markets is nothing to be scoffed at as they make the economy of bordering areas more dynamic and robust by tying the interests of the two nations together and thereby preventing terrorist groups from making any moves against their common interests.”
The Iranian lawmaker noted that ensuring the highest level of border security can only be achieved by the people of the area.
Referring to the martyrdom of five Iranian border guards in clashes with terrorists in the southeastern town of Saravan on May 20, he said that since Iran and Pakistan share more than 400 kilometers of border on uneven ground, the terrorists and enemies of Iran can hide in mountains, away from the eyes of guards and locals, and strike unexpectedly.
“However, the fact that terrorist attacks rarely happen in the Iran-Pakistan border shows that Iranian border guards are doing everything in their power to protect borders,” he pointed out.