Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri has underlined the need for unity, co-operation and better understanding to achieve long-lasting peace and prosperity in Middle East, adding this could be achieved by resolving the issue of occupied lands by Israel.
Addressing a press conference here he said that President General Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and he himself had from the very beginning been calling on an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. He also said that Pakistan had dispatched four planes loaded with relief goods for the Lebanese people.
To a question whether Pakistan had decided to send troops, the foreign minister said that Pakistan has not decided to send troops to Lebanon. He admitted that Pakistan was a larger contributor of peacekeeping operations world-wide and that it has taken part in peacekeeping operations during the last 30 years.
He said that Pakistan was currently studying the resolution carefully. He would be visiting Lebanon and would meet various stakeholders and Pakistan would be consulting with Arab and Muslim countries. He said he would go back to Pakistan and the decision, if any, with respect to sending troops would be taken at the highest level.
To a question regarding the role of the OIC and other Muslim countries in bringing about pressure on the great powers to cessation of the hostilities in Lebanon during the current crisis, Khurshid Kasuri said that Pakistan was part of the OIC's Contact Group but he also came in his capacity as the foreign minister of his country to show solidarity with the government and the brothers and sisters in Lebanon in this hour of crisis.
The foreign minister appealed to the international community not to wait for yet another round of blood letting. He said a lot of innocent lives have been lost in the recent crisis. International community, especially the great powers should try and address the root cause ie the Palestinian issue, which is the basic cause of turmoil in the Middle East, he added. The foreign minister also thanked President Bashar Al Assad for facilitating transportation of four Pakistani planes of relief goods for the Lebanese people through Syria. The foreign minister arrived in Damascus along with the Malaysian foreign minister and representatives of Qatar and Senegal as part of the OIC Contact Group.