'No compromise on sovereignty'

The US must respect Pakistan’s “red lines” and give a guarantee that there will be no transgression of the country’s borders in order to regain Islamabad’s cooperation in the war on terrorism, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Friday.

The US must respect Pakistan’s “red lines” and give a guarantee that there will be no transgression of the country’s borders in order to regain Islamabad’s cooperation in the war on terrorism, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Friday.

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Gilani made the remarks during a meeting with US ambassador Cameron Munter, who “emphasised that both Pakistan and the US should fully cooperate to fight the menace of terrorism,” said a statement from the Premier’s office.

Pakistan “wanted to work with the US to defeat the common enemy” of terrorism, Gilani said. “The Prime Minister, however, made it clear to the ambassador that Pakistan’s red lines should be respected, adding that the US must ensure respect for the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Pakistan with the guarantee of non-occurrence of the transgression of Pakistan’s frontiers in future,” the statement said.

Anti-terrorism cooperation between the two countries has virtually stopped after a cross-border Nato air strike on two military posts killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 26.

He had said the conditions included “sovereign equality and mutual respect, no unilateral actions inside Pakistan or against Pakistan and no transgression of our territorial frontiers.”