Two days after meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in New Delhi, Hurriyat chairman and Kashmir chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Monday said he was “happy” to have met a foreign dignitary “without any obstruction” after several years.Last week, Mirwaiz travelled to New Delhi to participate in an interfaith conference addressed by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. On Saturday, he held a meeting with Araghchi.In an exclusive interview with The Tribune, Mirwaiz said since the developments of August 2019, this was the first such interaction he had with a visiting foreign leader.Mirwaiz said during the meeting, Araghchi expressed a “desire to visit Kashmir” and spoke warmly about the “long historical relationship between Iran and Kashmir.” “Those ties are centuries old. Persian scholarship, literature, art and spirituality have left a deep imprint on Kashmiri civilisation, and these bonds between our peoples have endured across generations and changing political circumstances,” Mirwaiz said.In 2015, India had objected to the Pakistan embassy’s invitation to Hurriyat leaders ahead of talks between the national security advisers of the two countries. After the government briefly detained Hurriyat leaders in Srinagar, the proposed meeting between the two NSAs was called off.This time, however, the Centre allowed Mirwaiz to meet a foreign dignitary. Considered a moderate voice among separatists, Mirwaiz has long advocated dialogue. In January 2025, he engaged with the formal democratic process for the first time in over a decade when he deposed before the Joint Parliamentary Committee on amendments to the Waqf Act and opposed changes to the parent law.Mirwaiz has remained largely under house arrest since 2019. The Hurriyat Conference has been virtually defunct and leaders of his faction have not issued any statement on any of the recent developments. Mirwaiz said, “My approach and stand, whether from the pulpit of the Jama Masjid or through my political statements, has always been that the distance between New Delhi and Kashmir needs to be reduced.”“Issues have to be addressed for a peaceful and dignified way forward,” he said. Mirwaiz said this had been his position “both before and after 2019”, and he believed it “should continue to guide us”.“In that spirit, I hope New Delhi will also reconsider the policy of repeated restrictions and allow space for engagement,” he said.During the meeting, Mirwaiz told Araghchi, “Our own experience in South Asia has shown us the painful consequences of prolonged tensions and unresolved differences.”“It has only strengthened my conviction that engagement and dialogue are ultimately indispensable,” he said.The Hurriyat leader noted that “at a broader level, there is a growing realisation that wars bring immense suffering and destruction but rarely produce lasting solutions.”Invoking Mahatma Gandhi’s “philosophy of ahimsa”, Mirwaiz said India could play a “constructive role in encouraging restraint, diplomacy and peaceful engagement at a time of increasing international tensions”.“The need of the hour is not further confrontation,” he said, but “dialogue, diplomacy and a sincere search for peaceful solutions.”During the meeting, Mirwaiz was accompanied by PDP MLA Muntazir Mehdi, Jammu and Kashmir Anjuman Sharie Shian president Aga Syed Hassan Mosavi, and All J-K Shia Association president and People’s Conference leader Imran Reza Ansari.Mirwaiz has written to Pezeshkian, calling for the resolution of issues through engagement and dialogue.