NEW YORK, 23 September 2003 — Pakistan is unlikely to send troops to help stabilize Iraq until after it secures more US help in fighting Al-Qaeda and the Taleban, President Pervez Musharraf said in an interview published yesterday.
In addition Pakistan would require greater political support from Iraqis and the Islamic world before sending any troops, he told The New York Times. Musharraf underscored that the idea of contributing to a UN-sanctioned multinational force for Iraq is highly unpopular in Pakistan.
“You need to change the domestic viewpoint,” he said, adding that would happen only when “the United Nations, Muslim countries, Arab countries and Iraqis themselves are asking for Muslim troops.”
The Times said Musharraf “reacted testily to criticism that his government had not done enough in the two-year-old campaign against Al-Qaeda and the remnants of the former Taleban government of Afghanistan, which had many contacts with elements of the Pakistani government in Islamabad.”
He also said progress had been made toward controlling the mountainous tribal regions on Pakistan’s northwestern border with Afghanistan.
