|
Hekmatyar Will Not Move To Pakistan, Says Khan
 |
|
Hekmatyar
to stay in Iran despite reported Iranian threats of expulsion
|
By Aamir Latif, IOL South Asia correspondent
ISLAMABAD, Feb. 12 (IslamOnline) - Pakistan has said it would not accommodate former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbadin Hekmatyar.
The statement came out following the closure of Hizb-e-Islami offices in Iran.
Foreign Office spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan made the statement at a press briefing Monday, February 11, in Islamabad, following reports that Hekmatyar planned to take refuge in Pakistan.
Hizb-e-Islami sources in Pakistan told IslamOnline that Hekmatyar, too, had no plans to come to Pakistan, especially after the country became a key ally of the United States in its "war against Afghan Muslims".
"Hekmatyar will not choose to come Pakistan, and will stay in Iran", a senior Hizb official residing in Pakistan said.
He refused to comment, though, on the closure of Hizb offices in Iran, saying: "The matter has been resolved between Hekmatyar and the Iranian government, and he will stay there."
Asked whether the Pakistan-U.S. defense ties had also assumed the old level with the resumption of friendly relations and the lifting of sanctions by Washington, Khan said: "As you know the relations between the two countries have got back again to the same old level that we always enjoyed with the United States. There were some misperceptions which have been removed and the [present] relations are very good, and as a consequence of that, the relations in defense field are also going back to what they used to be."
Asked why Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar had not been included in the presidential
team of ministers accompanying General Pervez Musharraf to the White House, the spokesman said that Sattar had been invited by the Turkish government to an important ministerial dialogue of 40 countries on Feb 11-12, which he had already accepted. Sattar had left for Ankara in the morning, he added.
The scheduled meeting in Turkey, he said, was being held between the
Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the European Union (EU), and the theme for the meeting was "civilization and harmony, apolitical perspective".
Khan described as baseless the reports suggesting that Kabul believed the vanquished the Taliban leadership was regrouping in Pakistan and added that it
had also been denied by an Afghan government minister.
|
