President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday discussed with Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Islamabad’s plan for averting a likely show down with the United States next month in New York at the sidelines of UN General Assembly session over the signing of Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT).
Ambassador Haroon is currently in Islamabad to discuss the US push for consensus on FMCT during the upcoming Un General Assembly session and Washington’s pressure on Pakistan for signing the important treaty and stop producing bomb-making material. Pakistan has so far resisted all pressure at international level to endorse the FMCT despite immense pressure from the US, which has reportedly the backing of other declared nuclear powers for this move including Russia, the UK and Britain.
Obama administration also claims that it has the support of China as well for finalising the FMCT, but Beijing has yet to confirm or deny that. A Foreign Office official told Pakistan Today that Ambassador Haroon told the president that the US and its allied nations were trying to have an agreement by September and then to push jointly for meaningful talks on the FMCT at the sidelines of UN General Assembly session.
