Sarwar Awan
Rawalpindi
The British royal couple Prince William and Catherine (Kate) Elizabeth Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, arrived in Pakistan on a five-day tour late Monday evening. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, British High Commissioner to Pakistan Thomas Drew, officials from the Foreign Office, and top government officials cordially received the Royal guests at the PAF’s Nur Khan Airbase here.
William and Kate disembarked from the Royal Air Force plane onto a red carpet that had been rolled out for them.
Two children, clad in traditional dresses, presented flower bouquets to the distinguished guests. The guests thanked them and talked to them for a while. The five-day visit, which will end on October 18, has been organised at Imran warned, “Any conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia would cause poverty in the world.”
“Pakistan suffered 70,000 casualties in the last 15 years in the war on terror, Afghanistan is still suffering, there is terrible devastation in Syria — we don’t want another conflict in this part of the world,” he asserted.
Emphasizing that the visits to Tehran and Riyadh were Pakistan’s “initiative”, said he was also approached by US President Donald Trump to “facilitate some sort of dialogue between Iran and the United States”.
Meanwhile, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said, “I told Prime Minster Imran we welcome any gesture by Pakistan for peace in the region and appreciate his visit to our country.” He said that the two leaders had discussed the war in Yemen and the sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran among many other issues.“Regional issues have to be resolved through regional means and dialogue. We also emphasized that any goodwill gesture will be responded with goodwill gesture and good words,” said the Iranian president.
Pakistan has strong relations with Saudi Arabia, with more than 2.5 million of its nationals living and working in the kingdom, but it also maintains good relations with Iran and represents Tehran’s consular interests in the United States (US).
