Pakistan’s Support for Taliban Called off for National Interests

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Pakistan turned its back to the Taliban in the US invasion of Afghanistan for the sake of its own interests and not due to the US pressures, Pakistan’s presidential spokesman said.

Addressing a delegation of Iranian journalists and media people in Islam Abad, Pakistan’s presidential and army spokesman Shokat Soltan said, “Prior to the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Pakistan sent several messages to the Taliban leader Mullah Omar to persuade him to expel Osama Bin Laden from that country, but he turned us down.”

“And when the US invaded Afghanistan, we took part in the anti-terrorism coalition in compliance with our own interests,” he continued.

Asked if Islam Abad would accompany Washington in any possible invasion of Iran for the sake of Pakistan’s national interests, the spokesman pointed out that his country’s stance is very clear in this regard, adding, “Pakistan is strongly opposed to any use of force.”

Meantime, he continued, “What would Iran do if India attacked Pakistan?”

Asked to comment on the US double-standards and its nuclear cooperation with New Delhi, specially considering that India is not a signatory to the NPT and has nuclear arsenals and while the United States is totally against Iran’s nuclear access even though Tehran is an NPT member state and its nuclear activities are closely supervised by the IAEA inspectors who have all reported the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programs, the Pakistani spokesman said, “That’s right, while it is also illustrative of the US double standards and dual policies regarding Pakistan.”

The Pakistani army spokesman underlined once again that his country is opposed to the use of force for the solution of crises, and criticized the United States’ incursion of Iraq, saying that the incursion has led to the development of extremism.

Elsewhere, Shokat Soltan pointed out that Iran-Pakistan ties are friendly, but meantime, said that the two countries’ relations must be much closer than this and turn into brotherly ties.