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Pakistan considering troops for Iraq: Kasuri
Putrajaya, Malaysia, Apr 22: Pakistan is considering sending troops to Iraq to protect united nations staff, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri said today.
Putrajaya, Malaysia, Apr 22: Pakistan is considering
sending troops to Iraq to protect united nations staff,
Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri said today.
Islamabad had received a request from the United States
to provide troops but the government's decision would be based
upon the wishes of the un and the Iraqi people, he told a news agency in an interview.
Kasuri, speaking on the sidelines of an emergency meeting here of the 57-member organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) on the situation in the Middle East, emphasised that the troops would not play the role of UN peacekeepers. "As far as Pakistan is concerned, it has received a request from the United States to send troops for the protection of the UN personnel, not for maintaining law and order. "We are considering that and our government's decision will be based upon what it perceives as what the people of Iraq want," he said.
John Negroponte, the American ambassador to the united nations recently appointed envoy to Iraq, said last week that the United States planned to put an international force in place in Iraq dedicated to protecting UN personnel.
The force would be under the unified command of the US-led coalition and the un itself would not be involved in maintaining security, said Negroponte.
The UN pulled all its international staff out of Iraq in October, several weeks after 22 people were killed in a suicide bombing at the UN's Baghdad offices.
Bureau Report
Kasuri, speaking on the sidelines of an emergency meeting here of the 57-member organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) on the situation in the Middle East, emphasised that the troops would not play the role of UN peacekeepers. "As far as Pakistan is concerned, it has received a request from the United States to send troops for the protection of the UN personnel, not for maintaining law and order. "We are considering that and our government's decision will be based upon what it perceives as what the people of Iraq want," he said.
John Negroponte, the American ambassador to the united nations recently appointed envoy to Iraq, said last week that the United States planned to put an international force in place in Iraq dedicated to protecting UN personnel.
The force would be under the unified command of the US-led coalition and the un itself would not be involved in maintaining security, said Negroponte.
The UN pulled all its international staff out of Iraq in October, several weeks after 22 people were killed in a suicide bombing at the UN's Baghdad offices.
Bureau Report