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| India-Pakistan |
| FO reiterates resolve to fight Taliban |
| 2007-02-20 |
| Pakistan reiterated on Monday that it was fully committed to stopping the use of its territory for terrorist activities and was cooperating with NATO and Afghanistan to curb terrorism and extremism in the border region. Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam told a weekly press briefing that Pakistan had deployed more than 80,000 troops and maintained 1,000 military posts along the border with Afghanistan, and had lost 700 troops in fighting in the region. She said Pakistan was doing whatever it could and it was the responsibility of the Afghan government and its Western allies to concentrate on the situation in Afghanistan. She said the Taliban were a threat to both Pakistan and Afghanistan and Pakistan on its part was taking all possible measures to address the issue with a combined approach of military action and socio-economic uplift. Aslam said Pakistan enjoyed excellent relations with Iran and rejected media reports that the Pakistani ambassador had been summoned to the Iranian Foreign Office in connection with a border violation. She said Iran had not accused Pakistan of supporting terrorists. She said in fact the Pakistani envoy had a meeting with the Head of the Asian Desk at IranÂ’s Foreign Office to review the situation in the border areas and discussed a bomb blast in Zaidan. The Iranian side shared the results of its preliminary investigation into the blast with the Pakistani envoy besides information on drug trafficking and human smuggling. |
| Posted by:Fred |