RIYADH, 14 January — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd held wide-ranging talks here yesterday with Pakistani Minister of Communications and Railways Javaid Ashraf.
Ashraf is in Riyadh as a special envoy of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to discuss with Saudi leaders the rising tensions between India and Pakistan.
The talks focused on Saudi-Pakistani relations and also on how to coordinate stands after India has threatened to wage a full-scale war on Pakistan. King Fahd voiced his government’s support for Islamabad and called on the two South Asian neighbors to settle their differences through dialogue.
Ashraf and the other delegation member, Ijaz ul-Haq, son of former President Zia ul-Haq, met on Saturday with Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard.
"We apprised the crown prince of the situation on the borders with India and told him that we do not want war, we want peace, and are ready to talk with India," Ashraf said.
Prince Abdullah said Saudi Arabia would encourage both sides to hold talks to resolve the differences through peaceful means rather than war, and that Riyadh would use its offices in that direction, according to Ashraf.
The envoys, who also met with Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the first of seven Pakistani delegations due to visit several countries soon, left for Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) yesterday and later to Qatar.
Addressing a press conference here yesterday, Ashraf slammed as "arrogant" India’s refusal of any external mediation or a dialogue with Pakistan, and said New Delhi was still building up forces.
"The (Indian) build-up has continued, and today they have brought their strategic reserves from the east to our borders. That gives them the capability of undertaking a major offensive," Ashraf said.
He also said Islamabad would never again allow "private armies" to operate in the country in a reference to militant groups.
The visit of the Pakistani delegation to Riyadh is significant as India has announced a plan to send high-profile political missions to major Gulf Arab states including Saudi Arabia to garner support. Reports said Najma Heptullah, deputy chairman of the upper house of Indian Parliament, Rajya Sabha, would be leading a delegation to Saudi Arabia and Turkey within the next few days.
Ashraf called on India to return to the negotiating table and discuss all issues including Kashmir, where more than 70,000 innocent people have been killed by Indian soldiers. He feared that the growing relations between Israel and India will greatly harm Arab interests on global and regional levels.
Ashraf was speaking about the recent visit of Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to India, where he signed defense deals worth $2 billion.
He lamented that the Arab states have so far failed to generate substantial support for Kashmir, but singled out Saudi Arabia for extending support to Pakistan whenever the Kashmir issue was raised on international forums.
The Pakistani minister denied that Islamabad was detaining any Afghan Arabs, saying those arrested on the borders "must be with the Americans."
"Whosoever tried to cross into Pakistan from Afghanistan was captured by the joint US-Pakistani military teams patrolling the borders," Ashraf told reporters.
Pakistani Interior Minister General Moin Haider told Okaz newspaper last week around 240 Saudi nationals who fled Afghanistan after the defeat of the Taleban militia by US-aided forces, were held in Pakistan.
"This is the number of the people who were caught at the border trying to enter Pakistan ... But there is nobody held with us. They must be with the Americans now. They are not with us," Ashraf said.
