RAWALPINDI: Pakistan’s military is “cautiously optimistic” about its mediation between Iran and the United States, its spokesman said on Friday in his first interview since a high-level delegation visited Tehran this week, ARY News reported, citing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
According to the ISPR, DG ISPR gave a special interview to British news agency Reuters.
“Why would the Field Marshal be going twice if it is not for some positivity? So yes, of course,” spokesman Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said when asked whether the trips were a positive sign.
There were still “powerful spoilers and detractors,” who believed conflict serves them, he added without naming them.
Regarding expansion in the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, “Anyone who has a shared vision of collective deterrence and regional peace, why not? Everyone is most welcome,” he said, adding that it was for the political leadership of the three principal parties to decide.
Asked whether more Pakistani troops were being sent to Saudi Arabia under the agreement, Chaudhry said that would depend on the situation and the decision of both countries’ political leadership.
He said Pakistan was committed to defending Saudi Arabia and the holy sites of Mecca and Medina. “We are not part of the Yemeni conflict, which is an intra-Yemen conflict,” he added.
Asked if there would now be larger military-led campaigns in the province, Chaudhry said that was not how the army conducted counter-terrorism.
“Our counter-terrorism operations are based on what we call IBOs, intelligence-based operations… The tempo of the freedom of action of (those) IBOs will further increase,” he said.
