Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said on Tuesday that the Islamic Republic of Iran calls on the two countries to do more to reduce tension and resolve disputes and problems peacefully through dialogue.

He added that the Islamic Republic of Iran, as one of the victims of terrorism in the world, believes that the only way to fight terrorism and extremism is all-out and unbiased cooperation between all countries of the world.

Ghasemi’s comments came after India said it had conducted “preemptive” airstrikes against a militant training camp inside Pakistan, shortly after the Pakistani military accused New Delhi of violating its territory in the Kashmir region.

India’s Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said Indian Air Force jets conducted airstrikes against a militant training base in Balakot, Kashmir, on Tuesday.

According to an Indian government source, some 300 militants were killed in the strikes. Pakistan, however, has denied that there were any casualties.

In a statement on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Ghasemi voiced his deepest regret over a tragic mine flooding accident in Zimbabwe, which has claimed the lives of tens of miners.

He also offered sympathy to the government and nation of Zimbabwe, as well as the bereaved families of the victims.

Heavy rains last Tuesday flooded two mines in Battlefield area, near Kadoma, a gold-rich town situated 190 kilometers southwest of capital Harare. More than 50 illegal miners are feared to have been trapped in a disused mine, while at least 8 of them were rescued on Saturday, according to eye witnesses.

According to Almughawim, which is an institute for preserving and publishing the books by the Bahraini top cleric, Sheikh Qassim arrived in Mashhad on Saturday.

Mashhad in northeast Iran is home to the holy shrine of the eighth Shia Imam.

The cleric arrived in Mashhad from Iraqi city of Najaf, where he visited the holy shrine of the first Shia Imam.

While in Najaf, Sheikh Qassim also visited Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani as well as the Chairman of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) Ammar Hakim.

He is leading an opposition movement in Bahrain against Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty demanding an elected government in the Shia majority country.

He arrived in Najaf from Britain, where he received medical treatment after his health condition was deteriorated for being under house arrest since May 2017 by al-Khalifa regime.

That came just days after Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, visited Kabul and told reporters that talks had been held with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The meeting signals Iran’s role as a regional mediator to ease out tensions between the Taliban and Kabul.

Before this, the Iranian media said early this week that Tehran had hosted a Taliban delegation.

“A delegation of Taliban were in Tehran on Sunday and lengthy negotiations were held with Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi,” said Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Ghasemi at a televised news conference.

The delegation was on a three-day visit to Iran.

The delegation has been led by Sayed Taib Agha and Mohammad Ullah Nomanee, the Taliban representatives in Qatar and Shamsuddin Pahlawan respectively. The former Taliban Governor of the Maidan Wardak province was also among the delegation.

The development happened at a time when the Afghan Foreign Affairs Ministry had said that discussions have begun over the credibility of Taliban’s trip to Iran. On the other hand, a Taliban official confirmed the trip.

The Ministry stressed that Iran strongly supports Afghanistan’s peace process.

“The position of Iran in connection with Afghanistan’s peace process is clear and Iran will support the Afghan Government in its peace process,” the Foreign Affairs Ministry Spokesman Janan Mosazai said.

In an interview on Sunday, Bahram Ghasemi expressed regret that Europe’s proposed Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) has not become operational due to “limitless American” pressure and said “I hope Europe will be able to defend its identity in the face of these pressures.”

In the interview Ghasemi added that Iran is still hopeful the European trade mechanism will be put in place, but he added that at the same time Iran has many alternatives for trade, such as India, China, Russia and Turkey.

“Although we still hope that Europe would fulfill its obligations, Tehran has also tried options other than SPV mechanism with various countries, including China, Russia, India and Turkey.

“We think Europe is incapable of standing against US growing pressures regarding the promised financial mechanism for financial and trade exchange, and it does not have the ability to defend its identity and financial and economic institutions in the face of these pressures,” he noted.

This is Europe’s Achilles heel and if they could not resist the pressures to define the mechanism, the world will definitely change their attitude towards them, Ghasemi said, adding “Europe would lose its current position in the global arena.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ghasemi referred to US president’s secret trip to Iraq, saying “I hope the current leaders of the the White House would follow the path of wisdom and rationality, and we will see less problems in the world and in the region.”

In the media, various interpretations were made for Trump’s visit to Iraq; Trump also presented his own version of interpretation which was very interesting; his visit to Iraq was shrouded in secrecy after years of warmongering and spending 7000 billion dollars in the Middle East, Ghasemi added.

US president’s travel to Iraq is a clear violation of the country’s sovereignty and an obvious insult to its people, because he has traveled to Iraq for a visit to the US military base, without any previous announcement, he noted.

“Today, we see that the United States cannot remain in the Middle East, and the country has no place in the region anymore,” Ghasemi said.

“There are still ambiguous about what approach the United States will take to Syria and even about the controversial comments that the US authorities have said about Afghanistan, but anyway, as the situation in the region shows, despite all the problems and ups and downs, the United States has no place in the region,” Ghasemi concluded.