Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif. will raise the issue of drone attacks with President Barrack Obama in Washington later this month, the country’s top diplomat said Saturday.
Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani said that the prime minister would continue to raise this issue with U.S. President Barack Obama when he will meet him at White House on October 23.
The U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had extended invitation to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last month, the Foreign Ministry has said.
It will be the Prime Minister’s first meeting with the U.S. President since he has assumed office in June this year.
“The issue of American drone strikes was raised by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his visit to the United Nations and also his General Assembly’s speech and other forums. He will take up the matter with President Barrack Obama and will also keep on raising the issue at other forums,” Jilani told reporters in Islamabad.
Pakistan publicly opposes the drone strikes and demand of the U.S. to stop these counterproductive attacks however the U.S. has ruled out any change in the CIA-run secret campaign.
The U.S. says the drones target al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who have bases in Pakistani tribal regions and plan cross-border attacks into neighbouring Afghanistan.
Islamabad also argues that the drone strikes are against its sovereignty and internationals laws and spark anti-American sentiments.
Jilani urged India to come to negotiating table instead of leveling allegations against Pakistan to find out peaceful solution to the disputes.
He said that the issue of foreign intervention in Pakistan’s Balochistan province was raised by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his meeting with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh in New York last month.
The foreign secretary expressed hope that the dialogue process with India would grow, adding that Pakistan had as many concerns about terrorism as India. “The issue of terrorism will not be resolved by hurling accusations.”
To a question, the Pakistani diplomat said that the Afghan Taliban senior leader Mullah Baradar was released was part of the Afghan reconciliation process.
No comments:
Post a Comment