US kept a close eye on the Trilateral Summit in Islamabad

US kept a close eye on the Trilateral Summit in Islamabad

The US State Department kept a close eye on the Trilateral Summit between Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan held yesterday. The Spokesperson of the State Department, Victoria Nuland expressed that the US has no issues as long as these countries are trying to
resolve their disputes.

The US is currently having extremely poor relations with Iran, especially after the report of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Iran is enriching uranium for aggressive purposes. Considering the fact that Iran can turn out to be a serious threat
for the existence of Israel, the US has threatened to wage a war against Iran, which is already facing a number of economic sanctions by the world powers.

However, major regional players like Pakistan, China and India have made it clear that they are not ready to break their economic ties with Iran, especially because it is one of the leading oil producing countries in the region and also controls the Strait
of Hormuz.

Nuland believes that as long as the three neighbouring countries want to promote peace in the region, US will encourage such dialogue. However, the State Department has raised some question marks over Iran’s interference in Afghanistan.  

“The degree to which it helps these countries to do better as neighbours, that’s a good thing. The degree to which it gets everybody supportive of a process of Afghan-to-Afghan reconciliation, that’s a good thing. The degree to which it allows them to talk
about issues that have been difficult among them, including some of the concerns that we have about Iran’s activity in Afghanistan, that’s a good thing,” Ms Nuland said.

The State Department further emphasised that it is trying to convince the South Asian countries to keep a distance from Iran and all of them must boycott trade and economic relations with Iran. Nuland further added that the US is ready to cooperate with
Pakistan and Afghanistan so that the two countries do not look at Iran as their partner.

She added, “We are engaged in conversations with all of these governments with regard to the importance of implementing existing international sanctions, national sanctions, and also doing what they can to increase sanctions, particularly to wean themselves
from Iranian crude. So this is a process. It’s still going on.”

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Posted by Yasir Hashmi on Feb 18 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Politics, South Asia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry