ISLAMABAD, March 24: Pakistan has extended no facilities to the United States-led military action in Iraq war, foreign ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan said here at Monday’s news briefing and affirmed that Pakistan believed “regime change” should be by the people of Iraq themselves.

The weekly news briefing was dominated by questions on the Iraq war from Pakistani and Arab media representatives who appeared to suggest that Pakistan had been underplaying the Iraq war and seemed to disregard the popular national sentiment against the US-led attack.

When pressed to say whether Pakistan accepted the US-UK’s “unilateral military aggression” on Iraq, the spokesman asserted: “No we do not support ‘unilateralism.’ We want all issues and matters to be resolved through the United Nations and (that) we fully support the United Nations Charter and accept its supremacy.”

He said Pakistan had not extended any facilities for the US-British military operation and emphasized that they had been provided no air bases in this regard. The US was allowed air base facilities in some parts of the country during the anti-terror war in Afghanistan for limited purposes of rescue and logistics, he added.

The spokesman described the attack on Iraq as “deplorable” but avoided using the word ‘condemn’. Responding to persistent questions on this point, Mr Aziz Khan said Pakistan had consistently deplored the military action, a word always used officially in the context of Iraq war.

The spokesman said Pakistan had been actively engaged in diplomatic activity in the United Nations and remained in contact with foreign governments concerned through diplomacy to reactivate efforts to bring an end to hostilities and return to the Security Council to resolve the Iraq crisis and conflict.

In a written statement, the foreign office spokesman said: “Pakistan has already deplored the initiation of military action against Iraq. Despite our efforts for a peaceful resolution of the Iraq situation, hostilities have broken out in Iraq.

“Motivated by the objective of minimizing the suffering of the Iraqi people, we are playing a constructive role in the Security Council.”

According to the statement, Pakistan is focusing on avoidance of civilian casualties and infrastructure damage, particularly to civic services and holy places.

The statement stresses that military action should not prolong and that priority must be given to avert a humanitarian disaster for the Iraqi people. It also wants the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Iraq to be preserved, as well as the rights of the Iraqi people over Iraq’s natural resources. It is also in favour of restoring the centrality of the United Nations Security Council.

“We deplore the loss of life and destruction arising from the conflict,” the statement said, and added: “We strongly hold that humanitarian law sets limits to warfare and that indiscriminate attacks were forbidden, as also warned by the ICRC. The ICRC has stated that humanitarian law prohibits “direct attacks against civilians, and that belligerents must take every precaution in military operations to spare the civilian population.”

Pakistan also favours early lifting of sanctions against Iraq, the statement says.

EXPULSION RULED OUT: The foreign office spokesman ruled out expelling Iraqi diplomats despite Washington’s worldwide request to sever diplomatic ties with the present Iraqi government, adds AFP.