TEHRAN – Naveed Qamar, head of Iran-Pakistan parliamentary friendshipgroup, has said that Pakistan will not support the United States’ illegalsanctions on Iran.

“Islamabad has never supported and will never support Washington’s illegalsanctions against Iran, because these sanctions are harmful to the wholeregion,” he told IRNA in an interview published on Sunday.

He also urged the U.S. to remove sanctions on Iran.

Elsewhere, he said that Pakistan will continue efforts to ease tensionbetween Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan visited Iran in October to “facilitate”possible dialogue between Iran and Saudi Arabia which have been atloggerheads over a number of issues, including the Saudi war on Yemen andRiyadh’s support for the United States’ anti-Iran moves.

He met with Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei andPresident Hassan Rouhani. A few days later, Khan also visited Saudi Arabia.

The Pakistani prime minister visited Iran as the tension in the region wasgetting more complicated. On October 11, an Iranian oil tanker was struckby two missiles in the Red Sea, 60 miles away from Saudi coastlines.

Khan has said that he is making an effort to reduce tension between Tehranand Riyadh.

Prior to his visit to Tehran in October, he held talks with Saudi Arabia’sleaders in Riyadh as well as Rouhani at the United Nations headquarters inNew York in September.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric has said that Antonio Guterres, the UNsecretary-general, has welcomed Khan’s initiative to de-escalate tensionsbetween Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Dujarric told reporters at the regular noon briefing in New York in Octoberthat the UN chief welcomes any such effort “as a matter of principle”.