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Pakistan Warns Against Foreign Military Support for Afghan Opposition
ISLAMABAD, Sept 25 (News Agencies) - Pakistan on Tuesday warned the United States against pumping cash and weapons into the opposition forces fighting Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, saying it would be a recipe for disaster.
Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said Pakistan was greatly concerned at requests by the Northern Alliance - a disparate grouping of anti-Taliban forces - for "foreign military assistance" in its fight against the Taliban.
"We fear that any such decision on the part of any foreign power to give assistance to one side or another in Afghanistan is a recipe for great suffering for the people of Afghanistan," he told a joint press conference held with members of a visiting European Union delegation.
Sattar's remarks were a clear warning to the United States, whose military forces have been massing in the region ahead of an expected military strike on the Taliban, which has refused to hand over Osama bin Laden.
Bin Laden has been identified by Washington as the suspected mastermind of the September 11th plane attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon which claimed nearly 6,800 lives.
U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher had said Monday that the United States was in "close touch" with many Afghan factions, including the northern opposition forces.
Pakistan has always sided with the Pashtun ethnic majority in Afghanistan, to which the Taliban belong.
With a nod to British and Soviet failures, Sattar said the history of Afghanistan had proved that foreign interference in its internal affairs was anathema to the Afghan people.
"They have never acquiesced to a proxy government imposed on them from the outside. This should be borne in mind in the future," Sattar said.
"Those who intervened in Afghanistan and tried to plant their own preferred leaders in Afghanistan paid a very high price for that blunder," he added.
Apparently emboldened by the U.S. military buildup on the Afghan border, the opposition forces in Afghanistan have in recent days launched a series of major offensives against Taliban-controlled areas.
Leaders of the Northern Alliance have said they will cooperate with the U.S. war on terrorism, but have themselves warned against any long-term foreign presence in Afghanistan.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has pledged "unstinted support" for the U.S.-led international alliance against terrorism, but how far Islamabad goes in facilitating a U.S. operation against bin Laden's bases or the Taliban militia is a highly sensitive issue.
Sattar indicated again that any Pakistani assistance would be conditional on an eventual U.N. Security Council resolution regarding the current crisis.
"Pakistan's policy for the fight against international terrorism is cast in the mould of the resolutions of the Security Council," he said.
"Based on that principle, Pakistan can be relied on to be steadfast in its fight against terrorism now and for the duration."
Many countries, especially those in the Muslim world, have argued that the United States must receive formal U.N. backing before launching retaliatory strikes.
A U.S. military delegation was in Islamabad on Tuesday, holding talks with Pakistani counterparts on cooperation for a possible attack on Afghanistan.
A Pakistani government spokesman told AFP that the discussions were only "exploratory" and designed to prepare the ground for a second U.S. delegation that would arrive at a later date.
Pakistan has signaled that it is willing to allow the U.S. to use its airspace and provide logistical support for any military action.
It has also pledged to share its intelligence on bin Laden and the Taliban.
Religious groups have vowed to mount a violent campaign against any U.S. military presence in Pakistan. A Qatari television station on Monday broadcast what it said was an appeal from bin Laden for Pakistanis to rise up and "repel the U.S. crusader forces."
Pakistan found itself left Tuesday as the only country in the world to recognize the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, after Saudi Arabia severed relations with Kabul.
The United Arab Emirates - the only other nation that had recognized the Taliban - had broken off relations three days ago.
But Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Riaz Mohammad Khan said Islamabad had no intention of following suit, even though it has withdrawn its entire embassy staff from Kabul.
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