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ISLAMABAD, Nov 1: Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar on Thursday said that Pakistan would support deployment of UN peace keeping forces in Afghanistan for establishment of peace and stability.
“We will support any of these alternatives in order to ensure stability of the peace agreement which can be reached among the Afghans themselves,” Foreign Minister Abdus Sattar said at a joint press conference with visiting Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou at the Foreign Office.
He said that so far the talk about the induction of UN peace keeping multi-national forces in Afghanistan was on theoretical plain and no concrete suggestion had been made.
Greek foreign minister from whom a foreign journalists had asked the question about the suggestion of deployment of Turkish troops in Afghanistan said that he was not aware of any such move.
However, Mr Sattar interjected saying that he could tell in advance that Pakistan would support any such alternative aimed at ensuring the stability of any political arrangement which would be worked out by Afghans.
BROAD-BASED GOVT: Earlier the Greek foreign minister supported the idea of broad-based government and agreed with the proposals that it should be home-grown and reflect the ethnic composition of the war-torn country.
He also talked about the need for initiating dialogue between the civilization and cultures.
He said from their experience in Europe and conflict in Balkan they can give a message of hope that people of different religions and cultures can go beyond the idea of clash of civilization and move towards a bridge of dialogue.
“Where religions and cultures will not grow walls but build new bridges,” he remarked. He said he had discussed with Mr Sattar the possibility of opening up a wider dialogue between religious and political leaders and intellectuals of Muslim and Christian countries.
He said they had also discussed this idea with a number of Arab countries and recently with Turkish foreign minister who would take the idea to Organization of Islamic Conference.
Commenting on Afghan situation he said it had provided an opportunity to the regional countries to work together for establishment of peace and work for regional peace and stability.
On his visit he said it was an opportunity to strengthen bilateral relations.
Later Mr Sattar said that he briefed the visiting foreign minister about Pakistan’s desire for durable peace and security in South Asia. He said the settlement of the Kashmir dispute, in accordance with the United Nations Security Council resolutions and the wishes of Kashmiri people was necessary for normalization of relations between Pakistan and India.
