ISLAMABAD, Sept 7: Pakistan can mediate or facilitate a peaceful settlement of Iran’s nuclear row with the West if asked by the parties and is against any more violence near its borders, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said on Wednesday after Tehran’s top nuclear negotiator met Pakistani leaders.

He told reporters that Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani’s talks with him and with President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz for several hours covered “all aspects of our relationship” and US European Union’s objections to Iran’s nuclear programme.

“...it was very useful and fruitful exchange of views,” Mr Kasuri said about the talks without giving details while answering reporters’ questions after inaugurating a media centre of the South Asian Free Media Association non-governmental organisation in Islamabad.

In an obvious reference to fears of possible use of force against Iran to deter it from pursuing its nuclear programme, Mr Kasuri said Pakistan had already suffered a lot from the consequences of 26 years of violence in neighbouring Afghanistan and “we don’t want that another brotherly country meets a similar situation and is subjected to violence”.

“We are against the use of force and violence,” he said, and added that Pakistan wanted a peaceful settlement of the problem for which it could help the international community.

Asked if Pakistan could mediate, he said: “We can only be a mediator or play the role of a facilitator if we are asked (by the parties). But whether we are asked or not we have a fundamental interest in peace on our borders.”

Mr Kasuri said Mr Larijani, who is also the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, thanked Pakistan for its role in the nuclear affair, particularly in talks with the EU and the United States.

He said Pakistan’s stand was that while every country must fulfil its treaty obligations, its rights under a treaty should also be protected, and that the same should apply to Iran, which is a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that allows peaceful nuclear activities.

Washington and the EU fear Iran is seeking to produce nuclear weapons, but Tehran says it only wants to produce nuclear energy. Pakistan recently sent components of some of its used nuclear centrifuges to UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to help a probe to determine whether traces of enriched uranium found on Iran were from Tehran’s own materials or from Pakistani-origin centrifuges bought in the nuclear black-market.

NO NUCLEAR TALKS WITH ISRAEL: Mr Kasuri said there had been no mention of Pakistan’s nuclear programme during his historic meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom last week in the Turkish city of Istanbul.

“Not at all,” he remarked when asked if the issue was discussed there and asked: “What has Israel got to do with Pakistan’s nuclear programme?”

He said no decision had yet been taken about any meeting between President Pervez Musharraf and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and whether the minister himself would meet Mr Shalom again during the UN General Assembly later this month.

Asked if the pace of building a relationship with Israel would be fast or slow, the minister said: “It will depend entirely on the movement towards the realisation of Palestinian aspirations.”

Pakistan says its first-ever high-level contact with Israel last week was aimed at engaging with the Jewish state to help a just settlement of the Palestinian question and that it will not recognise Israel until the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

Mr Kasuri told a questioner that focus of his talks with Mr Shalom was on Palestine and not on India.

“When the two countries meet, it’s routine that they discuss international issues. They also discuss issues which can affect international peace. But it is totally wrong that India was focus of discussion. Focus was on Palestine.”