US should not make someone a ‘scapegoat’
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Source - Daily Times
*Foreign minister warns US against hot pursuit on Pakistani soil * Says
Pakistan’s policy is to seek a more intensive engagement with US
ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Saturday said that the United States must not make someone a scapegoat if its goals are not achieved.
There are red lines and rules of engagement with America, which should not be broken, she told a private TV channel in New York on Saturday.
The foreign minister warned the United States against sending ground troops to fight an Afghan militant group blamed for attacks in Afghanistan.
The warning came despite a top US military commander was in Pakistan for talks with the army chief at a time of intense strain between the two countries. The US embassy said Gen James Mattis, head of US Central Command, arrived in Pakistan on Friday, and that he will meet the army chief, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
Ties between Islamabad and Washington are in crisis after American officials stepped up accusations that Inter-Services Intelligence was aiding insurgents in Afghanistan.
“It opens all kinds of doors and all kinds of options,” she said. The comment was in response to a question about the possibility of US troops coming to Pakistan.
Khar, however, insisted that Pakistan’s policy was to seek a more intensive engagement with the US and that she would like to discourage any blame game.
“If many of your goals are not achieved, you do not make someone a scapegoat,” she said, addressing the US.
Khar also made a strong plea for resolving the two “oldest unresolved disputes on the UN agenda “Kashmir and Palestine to enable the struggling peoples of those lands exercise their right to self-determination.”
Self-determination is a basic human right which cannot be applied selectively, she told the annual co-ordination meeting of OIC foreign ministers, who met on the sidelines of the 66th session of UN General Assembly.
“We are meeting here at a time when the Palestinian aspirations for a national homeland appear to be entering a decisive phase,” she said.
On Kashmir, Khar said the prospect of a lasting peace in South Asia was directly linked with a just and durable solution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. Pakistan had repeatedly underlined this fundamental reality in its engagement with India.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Source - Daily Times
*Foreign minister warns US against hot pursuit on Pakistani soil * SaysPakistan’s policy is to seek a more intensive engagement with US
ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Saturday said that the United States must not make someone a scapegoat if its goals are not achieved.
There are red lines and rules of engagement with America, which should not be broken, she told a private TV channel in New York on Saturday.
The foreign minister warned the United States against sending ground troops to fight an Afghan militant group blamed for attacks in Afghanistan.
The warning came despite a top US military commander was in Pakistan for talks with the army chief at a time of intense strain between the two countries. The US embassy said Gen James Mattis, head of US Central Command, arrived in Pakistan on Friday, and that he will meet the army chief, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
Ties between Islamabad and Washington are in crisis after American officials stepped up accusations that Inter-Services Intelligence was aiding insurgents in Afghanistan.
“It opens all kinds of doors and all kinds of options,” she said. The comment was in response to a question about the possibility of US troops coming to Pakistan.
Khar, however, insisted that Pakistan’s policy was to seek a more intensive engagement with the US and that she would like to discourage any blame game.
“If many of your goals are not achieved, you do not make someone a scapegoat,” she said, addressing the US.
Khar also made a strong plea for resolving the two “oldest unresolved disputes on the UN agenda “Kashmir and Palestine to enable the struggling peoples of those lands exercise their right to self-determination.”
Self-determination is a basic human right which cannot be applied selectively, she told the annual co-ordination meeting of OIC foreign ministers, who met on the sidelines of the 66th session of UN General Assembly.
“We are meeting here at a time when the Palestinian aspirations for a national homeland appear to be entering a decisive phase,” she said.
On Kashmir, Khar said the prospect of a lasting peace in South Asia was directly linked with a just and durable solution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. Pakistan had repeatedly underlined this fundamental reality in its engagement with India.