|
Musharraf Stops in Turkey and Iran on Way to U.S.
ISLAMABAD, Nov
7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf headed west Wednesday to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush and other world leaders, hoping to parlay support for the war on terrorism into added diplomatic backing for his position at home.
On the way, he stopped over in both Turkey and Iran.
Musharraf, on his most important foreign trip since taking power two years ago, flies to Paris for talks with President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. He then goes to London to see Prime Minister Tony Blair.
While en route to Europe and the U.S., Musharraf stopped over in Turkey and stressed the importance ending the campaign before the beginning of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting.
CNN quoted Musharraf speaking in Istanbul as saying, "The attacks should not go on during Ramadan because that would have very negative effects on the Muslim world."
"That is one thing I would like to discuss with President Bush."
Musharraf said that currently there was a perception the conflict was a war against the Afghan people, which he said was "not the case". But that perception risked being "further enlarged in the Muslim world" if there is not a quick end to the campaign, reported CNN.
In a surprise move, before arriving in Turkey, Musharraf made a brief unpublicized stopover in Iran, where he held talks with Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref.
IRNA, the official Iranian news agency, said the two sides talks focused on several issues of concern but with the situation in Afghanistan thought to have dominated the agenda, CNN said.
While in the U.S., The Pakistani leader will also address the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Saturday, and will cap his voyage by meeting later in the day with Bush outside the world body's sessions, officials here said.
The high-profile trip will be in sharp contrast to the cool reception given by the international community to the Pakistani army general after he took power in a 1999 military coup here.
Musharraf's unequivocal support for the U.S.-led military campaign to root out terrorists in neighboring Afghanistan has produced a diplomatic and economic windfall for Islamabad.
The move earned him a lifting of sanctions imposed on Pakistan for its nuclear weapons program and the military coup, as well as a rescheduling of some of the country's $37 billion debt.
But as the head of an Islamic state, where feelings about the U.S. attacks on fellow Muslims run high in many quarters and could grow as the war drags on, Musharraf needs continued justification for his position.
A government spokesman said the president is confident of the support of most of his countrymen. But he added, "Pakistan doesn't have to convince the world leaders about the difficult situation that exists here."
Since the September 11 attacks on the United States, Musharraf has welcomed U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to Pakistan. But he has yet to meet with Bush.
The Islamabad government spokesman said the discussions, organized at Bush's invitation, would be "substantive" and would underscore "the renewed warmth in the Pakistani-U.S. relationship."
Riffat Hussain, head of the strategic studies department at the Qaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, said the meeting could "help Musharraf overcome the so-called legitimacy crisis for his government."
"More significantly it also marks recognition of Pakistan as a de facto nuclear weapons state," Hussain said.
He said Musharraf would likely seek to broaden and deepen strategic cooperation with the United States and persuade Washington to become more involved in Islamabad's dispute with India over Kashmir.
Signs of Musharraf's new diplomatic luster have abounded since his decision to accord the Americans staging facilities and use of Pakistani air space for the Afghan campaign, and to cooperate in intelligence sharing.
Foreign leaders and dignitaries have been trooping to his door and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan called him twice to come to the United Nations to share his views, officials here said.
But his pro-American stance is also a gamble.
Pakistan is home to several movements that feel closer to their Taliban neighbors in Afghanistan - often coming from the same ethnic groups - than they do to Americans.
Protests have erupted on the streets of major cities and several thousand people from the Pashtun tribes in Pakistan's west and northwest have crossed over into Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban.
So far, Musharraf has kept the situation under control. But analysts agree that the longer the war goes on, the greater the risk Pakistan will be destabilized.
Musharraf and other officials here have been pressing for efforts to "fast track" a political solution for Afghanistan.
|
