20.07.2011, 14:37
Offenbar deutliche Annäherung zwischen Pakistan und Iran:
Zitat:<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/MG19Df02.html">http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/MG19Df02.html</a><!-- m -->
Pakistan, Iran become 'natural allies'
By MK Bhadrakumar
The participation by Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in the two-day conference on terrorism held at Tehran on June 25 was invested with political symbolism as a mark of displeasure towards the United States.
But Zardari's return to Tehran within three weeks on a second visit on Saturday unmistakably carried the stamp of Pakistan's "strategic defiance" of the US. Equally, for the second time in three weeks, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei received Zardari, signifying the high importance that Tehran attaches to the nascent signs of shift in Pakistan's regional policies. Saudi Arabia made a diplomatic demarche with Pakistan to dissuade Zardari from attending the Tehran conference in June.
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The Iran-Pakistan solidarity rubbishes the Saudi thesis that the Shi'ite-Sunni schism is the dominant theme of Middle Eastern politics. The Pakistani Foreign Ministry underscored in a statement that Zardari's visit was taking place as part of Islamabad's "continuous consultations, coordination and cooperation" with regional states on the issues of regional peace and stability, Afghanistan in particular.
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Curiously, Afghanistan was not mentioned as having figured at all in the talks in Tehran although senior officials in Islamabad were quoted by the Pakistani media that the main topic of Zardari's talks concerned Afghanistan - the US's drawdown of troops and the establishment of US military bases in Afghanistan, in particular. Indeed, the Iranian accounts were uncharacteristically reticent, which would indicate that the talks touched on highly sensitive issues of cooperation that neither side wished to publicize.
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