QUETTA: Consul General of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mohammad Rafiei has said that Iran and Pakistan enjoy cordial relations in different fields since long and `we are mainly focusing on strengthening ties with Pakistan in the field of trade and economic cooperation`.

Addressing a press conference at his office here, he said peace in areas bordering Pakistan`s Balochistan was significant to Iran.

In recent high-level meetings, his country had pledged to further improve its relations with Pakistan, especially in trade.

He said that Iran was keen to join the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). `Since CPEC originates from Balochistan, therefore, we also mainly focus on Balochistan in terms of trade andeconomics.` `Chabahar and Gwadar are two sister ports and these are not rivals to each other,` he added.

Talking about recent tragic incident in Mirjaveh in which 10 Iranian border guards died and one of them was still missing, he said a role may be played to bring perpetrators to book.

`The Iranian public put pressure on the government after the recent tragic incident in Mirjaveh as a result of which Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif held six meetings with Pakistan`s civil and military leaderships in a couple of hours.

So much so, Pakistan`s interior minister also said that his visit was a clear message to those who did not want positive relations between Pakistan and Iran.

The Iranian diplomat said: `We further hope that militants of Jaish-ul-Adl will either be killed or arrested who, he believed, had targeted our security guards.