NEW YORK, July 3: Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf told an audience of American officials and experts that he had tried valiantly as ‘president’ to convince Iran to make peace with Israel and abandon its nuclear ambitions.

As details of his Aspen talk last Friday become available, the retired general also defended army coups and compared his actions to that of Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.

His main message was to defend his actions and those of the Pakistani military over the decades as in the interest of the Pakistani people and the survival of Pakistani democracy.

“When the state is going down, people run to the army to save the state,” he said.

“We had a dilemma: save the state in order to save the Constitution. Unfortunately, the military takes over to save the state, in order to save the Constitution. This was the view of even President Abraham Lincoln,” Musharraf continued.

“I know that he had violated the Constitution because his responsibility was to protect the state and therefore protect the Constitution. So this has been the dilemma of Pakistan all through its history.”

Musharraf said the Pakistani Army today faced a similar choice.

“The state is being run into the ground at the moment... and the people are again running to the military to save the country. So it is a dilemma for the current army chief: Should we do something unconstitutional to save the state or should we let the state go down and uphold the Constitution?” he said.