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ROME, July 14: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday cautioned against the use of force to resolve the nuclear issue with Iran and said that Pakistan supported the European Union’s initiative to resolve the issue through negotiations. “Pakistan does not support the use of force,” Mr Aziz said at the Italian Centre for International Conciliation Studies and the Circle of Diplomatic Studies.
He said Pakistan opposed nuclear proliferation, but added that Iran had the right to pursue its nuclear programme for peaceful purposes in accordance with the International Atomic Energy Commission guidelines.
“It is a question of building trust,” he said, adding that Pakistan favoured the continuation of EU initiative to find a negotiated settlement of Iran’s nuclear programme. “The solution does not lie in the use of force,” he said in the question and answer session that followed his speech at the prestigious Italian think-tank office.
Prime Minister Aziz warned that spiralling out of violence outside the borders of Iraq could endanger peace in the whole region.
He said the international community needed to step back and rethink its strategy in dealing with Iraq.
“Iraq needs fresh and a closer analysis. The world needs to come out and think about taking a different approach.”
He also called for greater inter-faith dialogue. “The label of terrorism should not be used to denigrate or demonize Muslims and the Islamic faith,” he said.
Mr Aziz deplored that Muslims across the world and especially in the West had become the victims of defamation campaign, which he said was “odious and repugnant”.
“Theories such as the clash of civilization has no basis,” he said while replying to a question from the audience. He emphasized the need for reaching out to all the religion, bringing all religions together and look for common areas.
He said Muslim countries needed also to introduce reforms to ensure political freedoms and socio-economic progress in their societies.
The West, he said, should assist in those efforts with material support while also helping to resolve issues that had generated a sense of deprivation and anger among Muslims.
AFGHANISTAN: Prime Minister Aziz said that a strong and stable Afghanistan was in the interest of Pakistan. Pakistan had contributed toward ensuring security during Afghanistan’s presidential elections and would do so again in their first-ever parliamentary elections, he said.
He said Pakistan had deployed thousands of troops along its border with Afghanistan to stop illegal crossing of the border.
However, he warned that the surge in poppy cultivation in the Afghanistan jeopardized peace and security in that country. “Drug money could be dangerous,” he warned and said the international community needed to come out with a strategy to deal with the problem.
UN REFORMS: Prime Minister Aziz also touched upon the proposed UN reforms and reminded that the world body needed to be made relevant to present times and responsive to the changes in international system.
He said Pakistan was firmly opposed to creating new centres of privileges by increasing the number of permanent seats for individual states in the UN Security Council.
