Afghan, Iranian leaders in Pakistan for summit
Pakistan: The leaders of Afghanistan and Iran were scheduled to meet
for a regional summit in Pakistan on Friday at a key juncture in peace
efforts with the Taliban and amid rising tensions between Tehran and
Israel.
Talks were to focus on strengthening regional stability, cooperation
against counter-terrorism, drug trafficking and trade, with a news
conference expected at around 11:00 am (0600 GMT), Pakistani officials
said.
Central to the summit is the 10-year war against the Taliban in
Afghanistan, where all parties to the conflict now accept that
negotiations are the only solution to the fighting that has killed
thousands of people. “Multifaceted cooperation among Pakistan,
Afghanistan and Iran, being close neighbours, was essential to address
the challenges and exploit opportunities in the region,” Pakistani
President Asif Ali Zardari was quoted as saying.
He expressed the hope that the summit with Afghan President Hamid
Karzai and Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would be a significant
step in promoting the agenda of regional peace, stability and
prosperity.
Relations between Kabul and Islamabad are traditionally mired in
distrust, but both sides have made overtures towards reconciliation to
facilitate talks with the Taliban, over which Pakistan is considered to
have influence.
Karzai told the Wall Street Journal in an interview this week that
secret three-way contacts had taken place with the Taliban -- a claim
denied by the insurgent militia but confirmed by the White House.In
Islamabad, Karzai described Pakistan's support as “critical to the
success” of an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process.
Pakistan, the historic ally of the Taliban, says it will do anything
required by Kabul to support an Afghan-led peace process, but there is a
wide degree of scepticism in Afghanistan and the United States about its
sincerity. Karzai hailed his trip to Pakistan as one of the most
important in the past 10 years, his office said. He also also thanked
Islamabad for cooperating with the investigation into the September
assassination of his peace envoy, Burhanuddin Rabbani, which Kabul
initially accused Islamabad of obstructing.
Pakistan says the trilateral summit will focus on cooperation on
counter-terrorism and transnational organised crime including drug and
human trafficking, border management and trade issues. Islamabad is
moving towards a detente in its own relations with Washington, which
took a drastic turn for the worse over last year's covert American raid
that killed Osama bin Laden and air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani
soldiers. But despite strong US objections, Pakistan says it is pressing
ahead with a multi-billion-dollar project to build a gas pipeline to
import fuel from Iran.
Israel this week accused Iran of targeting its diplomats in Georgia,
India and Thailand, against a backdrop of speculation that the Jewish
state or the United States could be months from launching military
strikes against Iran.
On Wednesday, Ahmadinejad unveiled new strides in Tehran's nuclear
programme in a defiant blow to US and EU sanctions designed to rein in
the activities. “I don't think so,” a senior Pakistani government
official told AFP when asked if mounting tensions between Iran and
Israel, and the showdown over Iran's nuclear programme, would dominate
the summit. AFP |
