Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan: All for one resolve

In what appeared to be a quite shocking for the US, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran on Friday resolved to fight out the threat of terrorism, which has plagued the people of the three countries for many years.

A joint declaration issued after the summit said the three would not allow any threat emanating from their respective territories against each other ensuring, “All parties agreed to commence trilateral consultations on an agreement in this regard”.

Hamid Karzai and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are in Pakistan to attend a trilateral summit to discuss the war on terror and regional situation.

President Asif Ali Zardari said that their bilateral relationship could not be considered or undermined by any international pressure of any kind.

He sent a clear message to the US administration about his commitment towards the pipeline project, saying no pressure from the US was acceptable and the project would be completed against all odds.

Following a refusal by India to join the project, Pakistan said it would try to bring in China or Bangladesh to be part of the project.

According to the media reports, Iran offered Pakistan to double the gas supply through the pipeline from 750 million cubic feet to 1.5 billion cubic feet daily by laying the pipeline with a double capacity, besides offering low cost gas.

About international pressure for not materialising the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, Zardari said they were lobbying the world and its stance had been looked at and admitted.

Rubbishing the impression that Pakistani forces were involved directly or indirectly with militants in Afghanistan, the president observed, “There might be some elements in the country that are a residue of the Soviet war and could be blamed for militancy”.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called foreign interference the reason for all problems in the region, saying the seeds of regional problems had been sowed from outside to keep the region half-witted.

He asserted, “All the problems we are facing today in the region are coming from the outside. In order to promote their goals and ambitions they don’t want to allow our nations to develop”.

He explained that there were countries that were determined to dominate the region. They have targeted the region for their domination and hegemony, he added.

The outspoken Iranian president stressed that the problems of the region must be resolved regionally and the trilateral meeting was a step to achieve that aim.

Afghan President Karzai said the dialogue had been productive and all three countries were working together.

He called the tripartite meeting future-oriented that had helped focus on recognition of opportunities and formulation of an actionable and implement-able policy to act upon.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Feb 18 2012. Filed under National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.