‘World accepts Pak-Iran pipeline project’

Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan have agreed to remove the obstacles in the regional peace and security including terrorism through coordinated efforts and mutual cooperation in various fields.
It was said by President Asif Ali Zardari, Iranian President Mahmood Ahmedinejad and Afghan President Hamid Karzai during a joint press conference on Friday at the conclusion of third trilateral summit, which was held here from 16 to 17 February.
Ahmedinejad said several of the problems had been imposed on the region by outside forces. “There are countries which have targeted our region for their dominance. We should deny outsiders to intervene in our affairs”, he added.
There was no problem among the three countries rather the problems were coming from the outside, he said adding that the three countries should stand together against foreign intervention. He said Hamid Karzai and Asif Ali Zardari were committed to work jointly to resolve problems.
He stressed enhancing regional cooperation and putting in use all resources to address these problems. He added the summit in Islamabad and the next to be held in Kabul were going to have very positive impacts for people of the three countries.
He said further that Iranian people greatly valued their brotherly relations with Pakistan and hoped these would further augment in future.
Asif Ali Zardari said the relationship between the three countries could not be undermined by any kind of international pressure.
He said Pakistan was lobbying the world and its point of view regarding Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project had been accepted.
“Iran and Pakistan are neighbors and we need to inter-depend on each other for prosperity of the region”, he added.
He denied the notion that Pakistan’s armed forces were directly or indirectly involved in what was happening in Afghanistan. There was a residue in Pakistan of the cold war era, he said.
He added that drug trade worth billions of dollars was going on in Afghanistan and Pakistan had extended full support to the Afghan brothers to deal with the issue.
Hamid Karzai said the impediments in the way of Pakistan-Afghanistan cooperation needed to be removed sooner rather than later. He added that the recent engagements between the two countries had been fruitful and deep in understanding each other’s point of view.
He said the tripartite summit was future-oriented recognising the opportunities and dangers that surrounded the region. He emphasised the need for evolving an actionable policy to deal with all the confronting issues. He said Pakistan and Iran should help Afghanistan reconstruct the war trodden country.
Zardari thanked the visiting presidents for attending the trilateral summit. He invited the Iranian president to make a bilateral visit to Pakistan at the earliest.
Earlier, the three presidents held wide ranging talks on cooperation in diverse fields focusing on cooperation in counter terrorism and transnational organised crimes including drug and human trafficking, border management and trade.