Saturday, 23 May 2009Pakistani Ambassador Tariq Azizuddin and officials from Pakistani Embassy visited USAK to enlighten members of the USAK and Turkish media.
Ambassador Azizuddin made a short speech about Pakistan - Afghanistan relations and recent developments in the region.
He said, "Russian Red Army enter in to Afghanistan on 1979, and left after 10 years but they left a communist regime behind them. Afghanistan shares its borders with six countries (Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Iran). Pakistan is larger than Afghanistan with 170 million of people. Pakistan has four neighbors, India (1800 km), Iran, Afghanistan (2.500 km) and China in the north. Heroin trade constitutes %33 of Afghan economy. Today, %95 of heroin supply is provided from Afghanistan. Taliban transfer heroin over Pakistan to Northern and Western countries. All these neighbor countries suffer from the instability in Afghanistan. Today, 4.5 millions of Pakistani suffer from heroin addiction. Taliban earns billions over drug trafficking. Taliban has brand new weapons; they have financial and military sources. Drug Lords are funding the Taliban and have power in the political area of the Afghanistan. Pakistan tries to cut off financial and military sources of Taliban. Maybe we will not get instant results but we will get results."
Ambassador Azizuddin added, "The world is uncomfortable about Taliban being close (60 miles) to the Pakistan and they could take possession of Pakistani nuclear weapons. First of all we do not sell nuclear weapons in supermarkets, so they cannot reach our nuclear weapons and we pushed them back to the borders. Everything is under control. And this is the same world which was uncomfortable about mass destruction weapons in Iraq. Pakistani President gathered all political party leaders in a meeting and came up with a common statement regarding the issue in Pakistan.
Reporter from "Kanal A" asked about rumors that Pakistani President's recent statements about Usame Bin Laden (Pakistani President Asif Ali Zerdari stated that they captured Bin Laden and handed over to the USA).
Ambassador Azizuddin answered; they informed the US authorities that Usame Bin Laden might be hiding near the Tora Bora Mountains. And US military searched area and made air strikes. We never have captured Bin laden but we pointed out where he may have been. Statements of our president should be interpreted that way.
Assoc. Prof. Ibrahim Kaya (International Law lecturer and USAK Researcher) asked question about 1.5 million internally displaced persons and if the Pakistan get financial support from UN and other international organizations.
Ambassador Azizuddin answered that, "there are nearly 1.2 million internally displaced persons within the borders of Pakistan seeking for secure places and there are no potential security problems with those people. There will be a big economic problem in Pakistan and it will not be solved easily or quickly. Two days ago there was a meeting to help Pakistan for this problem and many countries including Turkey stated they will give money."
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The Pakistani Ambassador has showed strong reaction to rumors that Taliban get hold of Pakistan's nuclear weapons as it is reported Western media. He said that we do not keep our nuclear weapons on our supermarket shelves and Taliban could not take our nuclear weapons.
Ambassador Tariq Azizuddin emphasized that most of the weapons used by the Taliban militants in Pakistan were made by Russia, America, and Iran. He also said "Iran is feeling under pressure by the West, since its nuclear program. Iran is also feeling completely being surrounded itself in terms of Iraq, Persian Gulf, and the U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Therefore, Iran will do everything also includes cooperating with the devil to ensure its security.
Earlier this week numerous Internet news sites and mainstream publications, including media outlets in Turkey, ran a story suggesting that Cheney was linked to Bhutto's assassination, citing remarks by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. However, speaking with www.rawstory.com Investigative News Editor Larisa Alexandrovna, Hersh denied reports that he told an Arab television network that Cheney ordered Bhutto's assassination.
"I'm as surprised as you are. But I cannot put such a thing past Cheney," Azizuddin responded when asked by a journalist about the news reports.
JTW
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Saturday, 23 May 2009
By Dogus Ayparlar, JTW
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