Pakistan welcomed “two delegations of Democratic senators this week on the heels of a trilateral summit in which Pakistan pledged greater cooperation with Iran,” The Hill reports.
Democratic Sens. Patrick Leahy (Vt.), Mark Warner (Va.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) met with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday. Sens. Tom Carper (Del.), Mark Udall (Colo.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Kay Hagan (N.C.) and Mark Begich (Alaska) met with Gilani on Tuesday at the prime minister’s residence.
Both meetings reportedly carried a common theme: Pakistani leaders stressing to U.S. lawmakers that they are doing all they can to fight terrorism, and taking umbrage at any suggestions to the contrary.
Pakistan also highlighted the need for international assistance, and noted that much of the promised aid had not been received, according to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn.
These visits “were preceded by Islamabad forging closer ties with the Islamic Republic.”
The day before the first Senate delegation arrived, Zardari sat down with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Tehran, a summit that came after Pakistan and Iran inked an agreement on the exportation of Iranian gas to Pakistan.
The three leaders, who also met with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, adopted the Tehran Declaration at the summit, which pledged further economic and development cooperation as well as joint efforts against terrorism.
The Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline Project will see Iran selling 21.5 million cubic meters of gas to Pakistan on a daily basis.
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