ISLAMABAD, 27 May 2006 — President Pervez Musharraf called yesterday for “flexibility” on all sides to settle the row over Iran’s nuclear program.
Speaking to visiting Iranian Vice President Parviz Davoudi, Musharraf said that while Pakistan supported Iran’s right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, it was opposed to proliferation of nuclear weapons in the world.
“Pakistan would support efforts to reach an amicable settlement,” he said, adding: “It (is) important that confrontation be avoided and flexibility be shown by all sides.” Davoudi stressed that Iran had no desire to acquire nuclear weapons and was ready to give more assurances to the international community.
Musharraf said Pakistan wanted a peaceful resolution to the Iranian nuclear crisis. He said he strongly believed a peaceful resolution of the standoff was possible.
Earlier yesterday Davoudi met National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain.
Davoudi held a meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday night during which they discussed bilateral relations and the situation arising out of the nuclear standoff.
Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led war on terrorism, faces a delicate balancing act to maintain its strategic ties with the United States and at the same time keep good relations with its western neighbor.
The vice president arrived in Pakistan on Thursday, following a day after Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
The two men held talks with Pakistani leaders and discussed ways and means to boost bilateral trade.
Analysts said the Iranian officials’ visits could also be aimed at seeking support from regional countries in the face of mounting international pressure on Iran to halt its uranium enrichment work.
New Probe Into Aamir’s Death Urged
A Pakistani Senate committee has demanded a fresh autopsy on the remains of Aamir Cheema whose alleged suicide while in German police custody is again being questioned, news reports said yesterday.
Cheema, 28, detained in Berlin for allegedly attempting to kill a newspaper editor, was found hanging from a window of his cell with his hands tied behind his back, Tariq Khosa, additional director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), told the Senate Committee on Human Rights in Islamabad, The News reported.
Khosa earlier this month endorsed German findings that suicide was the cause of death. He now claims that because of the tied hands and a last letter written by Cheema in Urdu, which was never turned over, he fears that the Pakistani student might have been murdered.
