ISLAMABAD, Feb 5: Pakistan has expressed hope that the issue of Iran’s nuclear programme will be peacefully resolved through negotiations before next meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in March.

“We hope that a peaceful resolution would be found during this period within the IAEA framework as Pakistan is not in favour of the matter being referred to the UN Security Council,” Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said on Sunday.

Talking to this correspondent, she ruled out Pakistan playing any active role in this regard, pointing to the fact that at present it was neither on the IAEA board of governors nor in the UNSC.

The spokesperson declined to comment on the text of the IAEA resolution on Iran’s nuclear programme but said that the resolution did not amount to a referral to the UNSC. “It is not a referral, it is reporting.”

Explaining the difference between the two, she said that under referral, punitive action could be taken which was not the case in reporting.