Conspiracies against Pakistan won’t succeed, says FO

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office (FO) has said that international conspiracies being hatched to malign and isolate Pakistan will not succeed.

Addressing a weekly press briefing, FO spokesman Abdul Basit criticised the ‘unwarranted remarks on Pakistan’ by the Israeli foreign minister, who has said “Israel feels a strategic threat at the hands of Pakistan”, not Iran.

“Pakistanis are a resilient, moderate and progressive nation, and efforts to malign or isolate Pakistan will not succeed,” said Basit.

He said that a recent meeting of the ‘Friends of Pakistan’ forum in Tokyo had clearly demonstrated that the international community fully supported Pakistan in the war on terror.

Basit said that Pakistan had positive expectations from a tripartite conference to be held next month in the US. Basit acknowledged that Pakistan and the US had differences over drone attacks in the Tribal Areas, and Pakistan would reiterate its stance to Washington at the trilateral meeting next month. He said that during his visit to the US, President Asif Ali Zardari would also talk about US aid for Pakistan and a ‘campaign against the ISI’.

He said problems in Pakistan were part of the spillover effect of the long-standing conflict in Afghanistan, but Pakistan was committed to face and solve them.

The spokesman said the Swat agreement was a ‘local solution to a local problem’, and its implementation would bring peace and stability in the region.

Replying to a question about the possibility of Taliban entering Islamabad, he said, “I have nothing to say at this stage.” Basit called terrorism a ‘complex one’, and said there was a need for well-integrated strategies to tackle it.

Students: He said Pakistan was in touch with the British authorities over issues related to students who were detained in the UK on terror charges and subsequently released. “We understand that the British government wants to deport these students to Pakistan. We will help these students in case they want to legally contest their removal from Britain,” he said. However, he refused to say if Pakistan would seek an apology from Britain.

The spokesman said Pakistan was carefully evaluating the security implications of India’s launch of a spy satellite.

“We are also mindful of the challenges posed to our security by the induction of new technology and weapons by India ... and the implications of the Indian satellite already launched are being evaluated,” the spokesman told the press briefing.

“There should be no doubt that Pakistan is fully capable of safeguarding its security. Our resolve and resilience are unshakable,” he added. link...