Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan agreed on Saturday to jointly fight militancy as they attended a counter-terrorism summit overshadowed by an Afghan hospital bombing that killed at least 20 people.
“All sides stressed their commitment to efforts aimed at eliminating extremism, militancy, terrorism, as well as rejecting foreign interference, which is in blatant opposition to the spirit of Islam, the peaceful cultural traditions of the region and its peoples’ interests,” the statement said according to AFP.
They agreed to continue meeting at the ministerial level ahead of the next summit in Islamabad before the end of 2011, added the statement carried by Iran’s official IRNA news agency.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Iranian and Pakistani counterparts Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Asif Ali Zardari also held three-way talks on Friday ahead of Saturday’s six-nation counter-terrorism gathering.
President Zardari said a regional approach to the issue was the only way to address the growing challenge of extremism and militancy, which he said was a common enemy of the three countries and the whole world, APP reported. He said that the war against militancy was a long-drawn battle and therefore long-term measures and joint efforts were required to eliminate this menace. The president appreciated Iran’s constructive engagement in the trilateral process and thanked President Ahmadinejad for hosting the trilateral summit and offered to host the next one in Pakistan.
Zardari vowed not to let terrorists succeed and called for collective global efforts to counter the growing threat of terrorism. Addressing the international conference, Zardari the root causes and the mindset behind terrorism must be addressed by giving the people hope. The president said law enforcement measures helped to contain the problem only temporarily. “The way to permanently defeat militancy is to remove the fear and instability on which it thrives,” he said.
“Terrorists violate both human and divine values by inflicting death and destruction on fellow human beings. They have no religion,” Zardari said. He said attacks had killed 35,000 people in Pakistan, 5,000 of them law enforcement personnel, and caused material damage totalling $67 billion.
He later called on Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and discussed various challenges faced by Muslims and the need to bring unity to their ranks. Zardari also met Karzai on the sidelines of the international summit and discussed the recent incidents along the Pak-Afghan border, along with other bilateral issues.
President Karzai told the conference that despite his government’s efforts, regional militancy was rising, AFP reported. “Unfortunately, despite all the achievements in the fields of education, infrastructure and reconstruction, not only has Afghanistan not yet achieved peace and security, but terrorism is expanding and threatening more than ever Afghanistan and the region,” Karzai said.
In his speech, Ahmadinejad again accused Iran’s arch-enemy the United States of using the September 11, 2001 attacks as a “pretext” to send troops to the region. “In light of the way it was approached and exploited, September 11 is very much like the Holocaust,” he charged.
