Pakistan FM : Iran To Play Key Role In Region

Islamabad, Sept 5, IRNA – Pakistan Foreign Minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, Tuesday said that Iran is an important country and has an important role to play in the region. “We attach immense importance to our relations with other neighboring countries, including Iran,” the Foreign Minister said in her speech at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin. The Pakistani Foreign Minister is on a three-day official visit to Germany at the invitation of his German counterpart, the Foreign Ministry says. She opposed use of force against Iran and called for negotiated settlement of the country’s nuclear issue. “We sincerely wish the issues surrounding its nuclear program are resolved peacefully,” Foreign Minister, Khar, said, according to the text of the speech. The Foreign Ministry issued the text in Islamabad. “We cannot afford another conflict in our neighborhood. There is too much at stake. Any intervention will have far-reaching implications,” she said. Talking about the regional situation, the Foreign Minister said Pakistan is now over thirty years into the conflict and instability. “Today, a daily spate of death and destruction has been unleashed on both the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan by groups that use suicide bombings and other forms of violence for political ends”. She said extremism has manifested itself across various strands of society, adding the people of Pakistan are sick and tired of this volatility and violence that affects their every day life, their ability to pursue their long term goals and aspirations, and most importantly the challenge it presents to “the hope of a better even prosperous future.” About Afghanistan, she said Afghanistan’s future is for Afghans to decide. “Only an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-driven process of dialogue and reconciliation can produce a stable, peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan”. She said the only role the international community, including Pakistan, can play is one of encouragement, support and facilitation. To support reconciliation and dialogue, Pakistan, she said, has tried to ensure an environment that restricts the space for those who would seek to ambush efforts for peace. “Pakistan has deployed close to 150,000 troops and established over 900 check posts along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. A matching effort on the Afghanistan side of the border would dramatically improve our chances for collective success in this endeavor”. In a veiled reference to the U.S., she said instead of coordinated and collective action, Pakistan and its citizens often have to suffer from unilateral military actions. “These actions are inconsistent with international law, and they complicate the situation on the ground. We can not afford to keep our eyes on short term goals. We must have a strategic long term vision and devise our action plans accordingly”./end