Iran Military Forum

Won't help US attack Iran: Pak President Zardari
Omar Farooq Khan, TNN Feb 18, 2012, 03.11AM IST


ISLAMABAD: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has assured his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that Islamabad would not assist the US if it attacks his country amid rising tensions over Tehran's nuclear program, Pakistani media reported on Friday.

The two leaders met on the sidelines of a trilateral Iran, Afghanistan summit in Islamabad. Pakistani media quoted Zardari saying that Pakistan and Iran "needed each other and no foreign pressure could hinder their ties''. He is said to have told the US "not to tell Pakistan who it can and cannot trade with" amid pressure from Washington to abandon the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline.

There was no official word on Zardari's reported comments. But the two later called for "non-interference and non-intervention" in their internal affairs at a joint statement issued at the end of the summit along with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.

The three pledged against allowing their territories to be used against each other, strengthen regional stability, fight terrorism and drug trafficking besides promoting trilateral trade.

The summit's timing was crucial as it came amid strained relations between Islamabad and Washington and Tehran's rising tensions with US and Israel over the nuclear program.

Later, Ahmadinejad lashed out against "foreign interference'' in the region at a joint press conference with Zardari and Karzai. He did not name any country, but said, "foreign powers" were determined to dominate "our nations" "All problems are coming from outside. In order to promote their goals and ambitions... they don't want to allow our nations to develop."

Ahmadinejad said in an apparent reference to the West. "We are here to strengthen the steps in order to solidify cooperation among the three nations. We are going to move towards removing the problems... and we should deny others the opportunity to interfere.'' Ahmadinejad also raised the nuclear issue, saying nuclear-armed nations ``are not superior to others''. "The nuclear bomb is not going to bring about superiority.'' He said Iran's relationship with Pakistan was an example of an alliance that "is not because of nuclear bomb or weapons".

Zardari denied allegations that Pakistani armed forces were playing a double-game in Afghanistan. "I deny this notion that any of our armed forces are directly or indirectly involved," Zardari told reporters when asked about evidence pointing to the involvement of Pakistani spies and officials in Afghanistan.

But he said he cannot deny that ``there is a residue in Pakistan of the war that was fought against the Soviet Union'' in the 1980s in Afghanistan. Zardari said both sides could not deny that people from the either sides were involved in militancy. "This is a world problem... they have left the baby with us,'' he said. "The three presidents you see sitting together, we shall fight this menace. Nobody is more concerned or more involved in it than me personally.''

Karzai also sought Islamabad's assistance in bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table and called for action rather than words.

"What we need now is to formulate a policy that is actionable and implementable,'' he said. "Our meeting today was one that was futuristically orientated with recognition of the opportunities and dangers around.''


http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-02-18/middle-east/31074872_1_zardari-and-karzai-president-asif-ali-zardari-nuclear-program