Islamabad, Jan 19, IRNA — Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shah MehmoodQureshi says the Islamic Republic of Iran would not discuss or acceptanything beyond the framework of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action(JCPOA).
In an interview with Fox News, Qureshi said during his conversations withIranian leaders he got the impression that they are willing to talk withinthe JCPOA, but they are not ready to talk about the JCPOA.
“They want to see what the grievances are and how we can remove them, butthey don’t think the JCPOA should be scrapped and things start all overagain,” said Qureshi.
To a question, the foreign minister who recently visited Iran, SaudiArabia, and the US on a peace mission said the primary goal of hisdiplomatic offensive was to tell everyone that de-escalation in the regionis in everybody’s interest.
“Pakistan is interested in de-escalation. We feel that new conflict in theregion can be very very dangerous,” he noted.
He was of the view that the impact of such conflict can go beyond theregion if oil supplies are disrupted, the global economy will be affected”so we should think of undertaking steps to defuse the tensions that tookplace because of the airstrike”.
Qureshi said the Iranian President and the Foreign Minister soundedpositive to him during the meetings. “They were in no mood to escalatethings further and they did realize the consequences of escalatingfurther,” he said.
Responding to another question he said President Trump has vowed that hewould bring back his troops from Afghanistan and that is why he askedPakistan to facilitate a dialogue with the Taliban so that there could bethe withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.
“We have facilitated that dialogue and hope there would be peace andstability in Afghanistan. What we are asking for is that even if youwithdraw do it responsibly, do not do what you did in the 1980s where youcreated a vacuum and other forces came in to fill that vacuum,” noted theforeign minister.
He added Taliban are today talking to the Americans there is a possibilityof reaching an agreement. He said Pakistan’s top intelligence agency ISIhas been supporting the peace process in Afghanistan and they used whateverlittle influence they had to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table.
To another question regarding ties with India, he said Prime Minister ImranKhan is very clear that if Indians take one step towards peace he will taketwo.