December 10, 2002	Tuesday	Shawwal 5,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 9: Iran’s reformist President Mohammed Khatami is expected to visit Pakistan by the end of this month, informed sources told Dawn on Monday.

Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar and Additional Secretary Aziz Ahmed Khan left for Tehran Monday morning to extend to the Iranian President a fresh invitation from the newly elected government.

Officials at the ministry of foreign affairs said dates of the Iranian president’s visit will be firmed up during the visit of the two officials who are due to return here on Dec 12.

However, they said the visit was most likely to take place between Dec 22 and 26.

These sources said Islamabad would soon receive a team of Iranian officials to hold preparatory meetings ahead of Khatami’s planned visit.

The Iranian president is also expected to deliver a keynote address to a distinguished gathering at the prestigious Institute of Strategic Studies during his visit here.

This will be the first visit by the Iranian head of state to Pakistan after US President George W. Bush branded Iran as one in the troika of the “axis of evil”. Iraq and North Korea being the other two.

Khatami’s visit is seen as part of joint efforts to improve relationship between Tehran and Islamabad.

This relationship has been scarred through the years mainly because of policy differences over Afghanistan. Yet it remains a key relationship for both the countries given their strategic location and standing in the Muslim world.

Foreign policy experts say the planned visit also reflects an eagerness in both the countries to improve cooperation between the regional powers following the US-led anti-terror campaign.

The US-led anti-terror campaign, reconstruction of Afghanistan and Iran-India-Pakistan relations and the possible US attack on Iraq are other important issues that are likely to feature in discussions with Khatami during his visit here. Iran that shares a border with Iraq has opposed a unilateral US attack on Baghdad. However, Iran supports the UN Security Council Resolution 1441 pertaining to Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

There has been easing of tensions between Pakistan and Iran after 9/11 and the subsequent fall of the Taliban regime. Significantly, Iran was the first country Gen Pervez Musharraf visited after taking over subsequent to a military coup d‘etat as the Chief Executive. His visit to Tehran in November 1999 indicated the first visible sign of thaw in relations between the two countries. A series of bilateral visits were exchanged in the three years since to improve trade and defence-related cooperation. In June, Iran’s top National Security Advisor Hassan Ruhani also led a delegation to Pakistan.

Pakistan’s foreign minister Mian Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri in a brief talk with journalists on Monday expressed the hope that Pakistan and Iran would jointly fortify relations with Afghanistan.

“Iran is an old friend and it can play a key role in further improving Pakistan-Afghanistan relations,” said Kasuri, adding that he had conveyed this to the Iranian foreign minister in their meeting in Bonn and he had responded positively.

The presence of US forces in Pakistan has been the main irritant in Pakistan-Iran relations and for Pakistan the North-South Corridor that Iran wants to establish with India and Russia.

The Khatami visit will provide an opportunity to the two leaderships to address these issues.