IRAN AND PAKISTAN AGREE TO HELP PEACE PROCESS IN AFGHANISTAN
ISLAMABAD 29 Nov. (IPS) Iran and Pakistan Thursday afternoon opened talks on regional situation with particular pledges for contributing to the peace process and reference to future government in Afghanistan and bilateral relations.
Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi arrived in the Pakistan’s
federal capital of Islamabad at the head of a strong diplomatic and
parliamentary delegation and started immediately talks withy his Pakistani
counterpart Abdol Sattar.
The two Muslim neighbours are at loggerhead in Afghanistan, their common neighbour, with each other supporting opposite side in the war-shattered nation.
Mr. Kharrazi arrived in Islamabad in the afternoon for two days of discussions, encouraged by the United Nations, and aimed at forging a mutual approach to a political settlement in Afghanistan.
Diplomats at the inter-Afghans peace talks in Bonn had regretted that neither country plays a positive role in bringing warring Afghans closer to each other.
"The situation in Afghanistan, regional issues and bilateral relations will be discussed during this important visit", said Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan.
The talks coincide with a UN-sponsored conference in Germany convened to launch the process of forming a broad-based government and supervisory council for Afghanistan.
Kharazi is due to meet Pakistan’s strongman General Parviz Mosharraf on Friday, the Iranian official news agency IRNA said.
Pakistan and Iran have sat on opposite sides of the Afghan conflict since the extremist Muslim Taleban took Kabol in 1996.
"But the ouster of the fundamentalist Islamic militia from power two weeks ago has improved co-ordination between Islamabad and Tehran", IRNA commented.
On his journey to the United States earlier this month, general Mosharraf made a brief surprise visit to Tehran and later met with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami in New York during the UN General Assembly session.
His visit was followed by trips to Islamabad by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohsin Aminzadeh and Interior Minister Hojjatoleslam Abdolvahed Mussavi Lari.
Sources said despite the fact that Pakistan has abandoned its Taleban protégé, yet Iranian suspicions have not stopped, thinking that Pakistan would again revive the Taleban, once the Americans would finished with Osama Ben Laden and his Al Qa’eda terrorist network.
The rivalry between the predominantely Sunni-Pakistan and Iran, the cradle of Shi’a Islam continued after the 11 September attacks on the United States, with Islamabad siding positively with Washington while Iran would denounce the American military intervention in Afghanistan.
Iran opposed Pakistani hegemony over Afghanistan and so backed the anti-Taleban forces known as the Northern Alliance.
Contrary to Iran, Pakistan made a 180 degree U turn and extended hands to both the former Afghan Monarch Mohammad Zaher Shah and later to the now victorious Northern Alliance.
As Iranian and Pakistani foreign ministers were meeting, it was announced that former president of Afghanistan, Professor Borhaneddin Rabbani was also coming here today to "open a new chapter of bilateral relations with Islamabad".
"If he comes, there would be a trilateral meeting with Iranian and Pakistani foreign ministers with the presence of president Mosharraf", a Pakistani journalist told Iran Press Service, commenting "The Frontier Post", report.
But a spokesman for the Pakistan Foreign Minstry said he had no information about such a visit by Mr. Rabani, who is the nominal head of the Northern Alliance.
"If Rabbani wants to visit us, we will welcome him", the spokesman said. ENDS IRAN PAKISTAN AFQANESTAN 291101