11-24-2006, 09:28 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>'Iraq's disintegration will affect Pakistan'</b>
http://www.dailyindia.com/show/85162.php/I...affect-Pakistan
Paris, Nov 23 (ANI): A senior researcher working for a French think-tank has said that Iraq's disintegration would destabilise the Middle East and ultimately affect Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Citing reasons for the same, he said that if the Kurds' demand of independence is fulfilled, then the Balochs and the Pushtoons would also have to be given the same right.
"<b>Destabilisation in the Middle East will spread to Pakistan. If we talk of an independent Kurdistan, why not give the same right to the Baloch and Pushtoons?" </b>said the researcher at the European Union Institute for Security Studies in Paris. He said this while talking to a group of Pakistani journalists who visited France last week.
<b>"A wave of new independent states in the Middle East would not stop at Pakistan or Saudi Arabia," the Daily Times quoted him as saying.</b>
<b>He further said that Iraq's division would hit Turkey very hard, where Kurdish separatists were already fighting Ankara for an independent Kurdistan state that Iraqi and Iranian Kurds would also like to join.
"Pakistan may be affected if Iraq's disintegration takes place, and its aftershocks will be felt in Balochistan and NWFP," said the researcher</b>.
Iraq's disintegration would also threaten Saudi Arabia, he said, but did not elaborate, and added: "The problem in Iraq is that the society is breaking up ... the problem is not that the country is breaking up."
He also warned the US against attacking Iran, saying the<b> "US would pay a bigger price both in Iraq and Afghanistan if President George W Bush ordered armed forces to stop Tehran from making a nuclear bomb".</b> (ANI)
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://www.dailyindia.com/show/85162.php/I...affect-Pakistan
Paris, Nov 23 (ANI): A senior researcher working for a French think-tank has said that Iraq's disintegration would destabilise the Middle East and ultimately affect Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Citing reasons for the same, he said that if the Kurds' demand of independence is fulfilled, then the Balochs and the Pushtoons would also have to be given the same right.
"<b>Destabilisation in the Middle East will spread to Pakistan. If we talk of an independent Kurdistan, why not give the same right to the Baloch and Pushtoons?" </b>said the researcher at the European Union Institute for Security Studies in Paris. He said this while talking to a group of Pakistani journalists who visited France last week.
<b>"A wave of new independent states in the Middle East would not stop at Pakistan or Saudi Arabia," the Daily Times quoted him as saying.</b>
<b>He further said that Iraq's division would hit Turkey very hard, where Kurdish separatists were already fighting Ankara for an independent Kurdistan state that Iraqi and Iranian Kurds would also like to join.
"Pakistan may be affected if Iraq's disintegration takes place, and its aftershocks will be felt in Balochistan and NWFP," said the researcher</b>.
Iraq's disintegration would also threaten Saudi Arabia, he said, but did not elaborate, and added: "The problem in Iraq is that the society is breaking up ... the problem is not that the country is breaking up."
He also warned the US against attacking Iran, saying the<b> "US would pay a bigger price both in Iraq and Afghanistan if President George W Bush ordered armed forces to stop Tehran from making a nuclear bomb".</b> (ANI)
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->