AFP notes that this meeting came just after the U.S. suspended some of the aid it had earmarked for Pakistan. Was it an effect of that decision? Probably not; Zardari met with the Iranians in 2009, when the American taxpayer money was still flowing to Pakistan. Nonetheless, these meetings should be taken into account in Washington. Pakistan has been for quite some time behaving much more like an ally of Iran than like an ally of the U.S. How long are we going to play along with the charade, and keep sending them any money at all?
“Iran, Pakistan urge stronger ties,” from AFP, July 16:
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and visiting Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari called on Saturday for a boost to bilateral relations, the official IRNA news agency reported.
“Iran is ready to reinforce its cooperation with Pakistan in every field,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.
“Construction of the pipeline to export Iranian gas to Pakistan is underway, and we hope it will reach the frontier by the end of 2012,” he added of a multi-billion-dollar project.
Zardari also said relations between the neighbours should be strengthened, and urged that “trade between the two countries be conducted in local currency and not the dollar, to curb smuggling,” IRNA said.
He also denounced “efforts by our enemies who seek to show that the Pakistani government is unstable by provoking trouble,” saying that those responsible would face justice.
Zardari’s trip to Tehran, a sworn enemy of the United States, comes after Washington deferred $800 million (566 million euros) in military aid to Islamabad in a bid to seek greater defence cooperation.
It also comes less than a month after Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to cooperate to fight against militants.
Zardari’s earlier visit had been to attend a counter-terrorism summit, on the sidelines of which the three countries reached the anti-militant cooperation agreement.
“After the conference and the tripartite Afghanistan-Iran-Pakistan meeting, we decided to pursue bilateral relations,” foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted on state television as saying before Saturday’s visit.
Zardari was also received by Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
Fars news agency reported Khamenei as telling Zardari: “The principal enemy of the Pakistani people and the unity of the country is the West, headed by the United States.”
Washington suspended the military assistance — about one third of its $2.7 billion annual defence package — some two months after a US operation killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden near Pakistan’s top military academy….
Suspend the other two-thirds.