Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf warned that any unilateral
intervention in his country by coalition forces fighting in
Afghanistan would be treated as an invasion, according to an
interview with Singapore's English daily The Straits Times
published Friday.
"Any entry by the United States or coalition forces into
Pakistan's tribal areas would be resisted as a breach of Pakistan's
sovereignty," Musharraf told the newspaper.
Four American Democratic politicians contending for the party's
nomination for the race to the White House, have called for U.S.
forces now in neighboring Afghanistan to join the Pakistan Army's
counter-insurgency campaign and to hunt down Al-Qaida Leader Osama
bin Laden in Pakistan's tribal areas.
The president said, "I challenge anybody coming into our
mountains. They would regret that day."
He also criticized U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton's proposal to
place Pakistan's nuclear weapons under supervision of the U.S. and
the UK.
He told The Straits Times that her statement was "an intrusion
into our privacy, into our sensitivity... She doesn't seem to
understand how well-guarded these assets are."
During the interview, he also said he would resign if a
government that emerged from the coming election sought his
impeachment.
He told The Straits Times that some countries, unlike many
Western media, understood Pakistan's problems.
"The Western media want to impose their understanding of
democracy and human rights on our developing countries, while China
and other eastern countries don't," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency January 11, 2008)
