ISLAMABAD, 13 May 2004 — US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Christina Rocca, yesterday sought Pakistan’s vote for an upcoming resolution in the UN Security Council envisaging a greater role for the world body in Iraq, diplomatic sources said.
“The focal point of the talks was the resolution to be moved soon in the Security Council seeking a greater role of the UN in war-torn Iraq,” sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur following Rocca’s meeting with President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali.
Pakistan presently holds the presidency of the Security Council and is also a close ally of the United States in its war on terror in Afghanistan.
Islamabad had been turning down Washington’s request to contribute troops to Iraq without the UN umbrella.
The talks also focused on the situation in Afghanistan, the Pakistan-US partnership in the war against terror, the current state of relations between Pakistan and India, and developments in Iraq.
Pakistani leaders expressed concern over the US Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad’s statements in which he called into question Pakistan’s anti-terror efforts, an official said.
“Rocca assured them (Pakistani leaders) that Khalilzad’s remarks reflected his personal opinion and not that of the Bush administration,” he said.
Pakistan is actively engaged in combating terrorism and extremist forces domestically and has handed over to the US more than 500 Al-Qaeda and Taleban fugitives since the fall of the radical regime in Afghanistan in December 2001.
The military operation in Pakistan’s South Waziristan region in March — which left over 100 foreign and local militants as well as 46 army troops dead — was also part of a campaign to flush out terrorists.
