Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari visited Iran for the second time in three weeks on July 16 as Pakistan’s relationship with the United States deteriorates. Zardari discussed strengthening cooperation with Tehran in energy, trade and combating terrorism, as he held two rounds of talks with both Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Zardari told Ahmadinejad that Iran is an “important friend and player in the region” and a “model of resistance and path to progress.” In return, Khamenei returned the praise, calling Pakistan “a great nation with long and deep background of struggle,” and warning that the “real enemy” of Pakistan was the West “and the U.S. on top of it.”

Iran’s state-controlled Tehran Times reported that Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar will visit Pakistan late next week to “hold talks on economic, regional and security cooperation between the two countries.”

These meetings are significant as they show Iran and Pakistan are able to overcome the Sunni-Shiite differences that some have said would forever keep them apart. “The Iran-Pakistan solidarity rubbishes the Saudi thesis that the Shiite-Sunni schism is the dominant theme of Middle Eastern politics,” writes former Indian diplomat M.K. Bhadrakumar.

Pakistan needs Iranian support. Pakistani Petroleum Minister Asim Hussain admitted that Pakistan needs the natural gas pipeline from Iran that is currently under construction. “Our dependence on Pakistan-Iran pipeline was very high and there is no other substitute at present to meet the growing demand of the energy,” he was quoted as saying.

“The project holds the potential to elevate the Iran-Pakistan relationship from the realm of rhetoric and hyperbole to a genuinely strategic plane,” writes Bhadrakumar.

The recent talks included this pipeline, with Ahmadinejad announcing the pipeline would be operational by the end 2012. But the discussion went beyond energy. Bhadrakumar writes: “Indeed, the Iranian accounts were uncharacteristically reticent, which would indicate that the talks touched on highly sensitive issues of cooperation that neither side wished to publicize. Security issues undoubtedly figured prominently in the discussions.” The Pakistani briefing said that Khamenei and Zardari talked about the “evolving situation in Afghanistan, with particular reference to the gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces.”

The two countries also discussed a free-trade agreement as well as an arrangement for the two nations to trade without the use of U.S. dollars.

The fact that Iran is drawing closer to a nation that has nuclear bombs should be worrying to the West. As Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in 2008: “Pakistan also has the nuclear bomb and could be taken over by radical Islam, with plenty of help from Iran. That means it could become a proxy of the Iranian mullahs. This would be the worst possible disaster!”

Pakistan is discussing how to combat extremism with the world’s biggest sponsor of terrorism. It is holding Iran up as a “model of resistance and path to progress.” Pakistan’s slide to extreme Islamism is dangerous. For more information on where this could be leading, see Mr. Flurry’s article “Pakistan and the Shah of Iran.”