Pakistan welcomes renewed US interests in Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD: Welcoming the renewed US interest in promoting the peace process in Afghanistan, Pakistan Saturday said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif played an important role in bringing the Taliban and Northern Alliance to the negotiating table.
"The US Special Envoy has expressed his great appreciation and special thanks to the Prime Minister for the positive role Pakistan played in making his mission a success," Foreign Office spokesman said.
Spokesman Tariq Altaf insisted that the Richardson's visit to Afghanistan has to be seen in the context of the efforts and substantive spadework done by Pakistan on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's initiative to promote the Afghan peace process.
"Pakistan has long been in contact with the United States but unfortunately Washington had disengaged itself from Afghanistan after having used the Afghan against the former Soviet Union in bringing an end to the cold war.
Islamabad, he said, welcomes the changed U.S attitude, which is a direct consequence of the read role that Pakistan has always played towards and Afghan settlement.
The spokesman claimed that the Prime Minister's initiative registered significant forward movement as contacts were established with all the Afghan parties on both sides of the Afghan political divide since June last years.
He recalled that several shuttle visits by a representative of the Foreign Office were undertaken, all neighboring countries including Saudi Arabia and Iran were briefed and detailed discussions were held with the supreme leader of the Taliban, Mulla Omar.
Altaf said, "We have also been cooperating closely with the UN and the OIC for promoting an intra-Afghan dialogue. Extensive discussions were held with the UN Special Representative on Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi and the OIC Representative in New York during their recent visit to Pakistan.
"We want the UN to play a central and impartial role and establish their credentials as an impartial mediator with the Taliban, he said. "We have consistently called upon the UN to adopt the vacant seat formula in respect to Afghanistan and have urged a comprehensive arms embargo on Afghanistan", he added.
To a question, the spokesman said he expressed US desire that India and Pak should resume dialogue to resolve outstanding issues. He said however, Pakistan dud nit receive a hard pledge of sincerity by the Indian govt for dialogue to resolve the issues.-NNI
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Last modified on Sunday, 19-Apr-1998 08:14:21 PDT