Pakistani PM calls for peaceful answer to Iran nuclear issue
The standoff over Iran's nuclear program should be resolved through negotiations and not by force, Pakistan's prime minister said Sunday.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz made the remarks at the opening of a meeting of foreign ministers from seven Muslim nations to discuss possible ways to resolve tensions in the Middle East, including in Iran and Iraq, and to curb the spread of extremism, a statement by Aziz's office said.
Ministers from Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, as well as Turkey's Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the secretary general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference - a 57-member bloc of Islamic states - held the meeting in the capital, Islamabad.
Sunday's meeting is supposed to lay the groundwork for a summit of Muslim leaders to be held in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. No dates have been announced for that meeting.
The statement quoted Aziz as saying that the Iranian nuclear issue should be resolved through diplomacy and the "use of force should be avoided."
The United States and several of its Western allies fear that Iran is using its nuclear program to produce an atomic weapon - charges Iran denies, saying its aim is to generate electricity.
US Vice President Dick Cheney, while visiting Australia on Saturday, criticized Iran's defiance of a UN deadline for freezing its uranium enrichment programs. Cheney said that while the US seeks a peaceful resolution with Iran, "all options" were on the table.
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1) Pakistani PM calls for peaceful answer to Iran nuclear issue
Sunday, February 25, 2007
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