Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Syed Ali Khamenei lamented the recent targeted killings of minority Muslims in Pakistani when he met President Asif Ali Zardari the other day.
Khamenei urged Islamabad to take decisive action to put an end to such moves, warning that division among Muslims had long been a Zionist goal.
During the meeting in Tehran on Wednesday, the Iranian supreme leader described sectarian strife in Pakistan as a dangerous microbe sent to Pakistan from abroad, and added, “The sectarian massacre in Pakistan is really regrettable, and decisive action needs to be taken in order not to allow this issue to disturb Pakistan’s national unity.”
He expressed confidence in the ability of the Pakistani government to overcome the problem and hoped that Zardari’s government would embrace success in “consolidating religious and ethnic unity and Pakistan’s progress”.
The supreme leader cautioned that large parts of problems in the Muslim community have been sown and stirred by enemies of Islam, and said reviving and activating the human, natural and geographical capabilities and abilities of the Muslim world would extend a major help to the settlement of these problems.
He noted the brotherly bonds between Iran and Pakistan, and said, “We seriously believe that the two countries’ economic, infrastructural, political, social and security ties should be reinvigorated.”
The Iranian leader also pointed to the gas pipeline which was due to take Iran’s rich gas reserves to Pakistan as a crucially important instance of Tehran-Islamabad cooperation, and called for ignoring the opposition shown by certain actors to the development of Iran-Pakistan relations.
