ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will neither let its soil be used against any other state, nor will it become part of any regional conflict, government and military officials said on Sunday, amid increasing tensions following the killing of Iran’s military commander Qassem Soleimani.
Soleimani was killed by the United States on Friday, in a missile attack at Baghdad airport, Iraq.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday had telephonic conversations with his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the UAE and Turkey, in which he highlighted the importance of de-escalation, avoiding conflict and exercising maximum restraint, the Foreign Office said in a statement.
Qureshi “renewed the call on all parties concerned to abide by the UN Charter and principles of international law to settle differences through peaceful means” and said “Pakistan would neither let its soil be used against any other state nor become part of any regional conflict,” according to the statement.
Pakistan Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor, on Sunday, denied what has been circulated in social media that Islamabad was going to join any American war on Iran, noting that “we will not allow our soil to be used against anyone.”
“Our region has faced plenty of security challenges in the last four decades,” he said, while talking to a local news channel.
Discussing the army chief’s recent phone conversation with the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the military spokesman said Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa had clearly maintained that the region was moving toward peace and stability for which success in the Afghan peace process was imperative.
He said that the army chief had told the American official that Pakistan would support efforts for peace in the region, adding it did not want to see another conflict in the neighborhood.
Meanwhile, anti-American rallies protests over the killing of Soleimani have been held in several Pakistani cities. In Karachi, protesters marched toward the American consulate on Sunday, and were stopped by law enforcers a few hundred meters from the mission.
In Parachinar in Kurram tribal district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, hundreds of protesters came to the streets and announced a three-day mourning period in the district.
