A meeting of Pakistan's envoys from United Nations, United States, Britain, China, India, Iran and Afghanistan has been convened in Islamabad by Pakistan Foreign Secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan on March 8 to discuss the major challenges arising out of pressure from the international community to deal with Taliban and al Qaeda more effectively.
The conference to be attended by Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid M Kasuri would discuss all vital aspects of the country's foreign policy and review the national security in closed-door deliberations, media reports in Islamabad said.
Top of the agenda for the meeting was the mounting criticism from US and NATO countries on the continued cross-border infiltration of Taliban and Al Qaeda militants into Afghanistan and the plans by the two outfits to launch a spring offensive.
Pressure from United States intensified after Vice President Dick Cheney made a surprise visit to Islamabad last week and held talks with President Pervez Musharraf during which he reportedly conveyed Washington's concerns over the increased activities of Taliban and al Qaeda in Pakistan, an allegation Islamabad consistently denied.
But seen as a fallout of Cheney's visit, Pakistan forces detained Taliban number two Mullah Obaidullah, a close associate of the outfit's chief, Mullah Omar from Pakistan city of Quetta last week.
Islamabad earlier vehemently denied allegations by Afghanistan and US that Taliban leadership functioned from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province.
After the arrest of Obaidullah along two others, Pakistan also later permitted US officials to question him.
The convoys conference was also expected to discuss the India-Pak peace process and the feed back from different countries.
Significantly the meeting of Pakistan's envoys included its Ambassador from Iran, which according to recent reports has begun building a concrete wall along its border crossings.
News from the Shia majority Iran during the past weeks was not much of comfort for Sunni dominated Pakistan as its Ambassador was summoned by Tehran's Foreign Office to protest over the killing of several Iranian border guards following the death of 13 Iranian Revolutionary Guards in a car bomb blast in Zahedan.
A top Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Ahmad Khatami has also accused Pakistan of becoming a "terrorist sanctuary," following an upsurge of violence on the Pak-Iranian border area, which Tehran blamed on plots by United States and on Pakistan's inability to control its border.
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