Pakistan will not allow itself to be staging ground for any terrorist attacks, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Friday amid reports foreign fighters were heading to the country to join Al-Qaeda militants.
Washington has warned that global terror group Al-Qaeda is rebuilding itself in Pakistan's tribal areas for a possible terrorist attack on US soil while Kabul has accused Pakistan of backing Taliban insurgents waging a bloody insurgency against international troops in Afghanistan.
"Pakistan will not permit its territory to be used by anyone against any country," Qureshi told a forum of the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
The newly elected administration of Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani "has now the legitimate mandate to confront the forces of terrorism wherever they rear their ugly heads," Qureshi said.
US intelligence officials say there has been an increase in foreign fighters travelling to Pakistan to join up with Al-Qaeda-linked militants in the country's tribal areas, the New York Times reported Thursday.
Dozens or more Uzbeks, North Africans and Arabs from Gulf states have reportedly moved into Pakistan in recent months, shoring up the Al-Qaeda forces backing the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
General David McKiernan, the new NATO commander in Afghanistan, said the situation in Pakistan's northwestern border areas, where Al-Qaeda and other Islamic insurgents are reportedly based, had worsened.
In talks with White House National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, Qureshi "expressed determination" of his government "to fight terrorism, which continues to be a threat to Pakistan," the Pakistan embassy in Washington said in a statement.
He told Hadley that Islamabad "will not negotiate with the terrorists, but will work with our people to limit the influence of extremists in the society," the statement said.
At the forum, the minister said his government would continue with what he called a "political dialogue" to complement its military strategy "aimed at achieving peace agreement with those who desire peace and are willing to lay down their arms.
"While we prefer dialogue over use of force for obvious reasons, we are not shy to employ force where it is required as evident from" recent operations against militants along the border with Afghanistan, he said.
The United States has said that it did not approve of Islamabad's negotiations with top Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud, accused of masterminding the slaying of former premier Benazir Bhutto last year.
Gilani's government launched the talks after defeating allies of US-backed President Pervez Musharraf in elections in February.
Qureshi stressed that Pakistan had a vital stake in peace and stability in Afghanistan, saying, "We cannot think of a scenario where Pakistan can benefit from the continuing turmoil" in the neighboring nation.
"For that reason, it is baffling when we come across the insinuations that Pakistan was in a way responsible for the present or past crises in Afghanistan," he said.
On India-Pakistan relations, Qureshi said Islamabad was committed to continuing dialogue with its eastern neighbor but called for immediate steps to take them "out of the cycle of hostility, acrimony and mutual suspicion."
Four rounds of talks since January 2004 have added more bus and train links between the traditionally feuding neighbors, but there has been scant headway on Kashmir, the trigger for two of their three wars since 1947.
Qureshi wanted a "serious dialogue" to address the Kashmir problem and urged the United States to play a role in "facilitating" a resolution.
"Pakistan has shown flexibility and emphasized the need for out of the box thinking," he said. "There is a general feeling and public perception in Pakistan that a matching response should come from India."
