WASHINGTON: After release of a joint clarification statement addressing all issues linked to the Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill President Barack Obama will sign the Bill, Senator John Kerry here said.The decision to issue such a statement was taken after a series of meetings in Washington between the visiting Pakistani foreign minister and senior US officials and lawmakers.
‘We must address the concerns and fears expressed in Pakistan,’ Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters after a meeting with Senator John Kerry, who chairs the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
Senator Kerry assured the Pakistani nation that the United States had no desire to manage its affairs. Washington, he said, also recognised the army’s role in the war against the extremists.
Qureshi had a longer meeting with Senator Kerry at his office. In the afternoon, he met US National Security Adviser James Jones and Congressman Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The two US legislators and the Pakistani foreign minister will work on a joint statement, which will address all issues relating to the Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill. ‘All interpretations and misinterpretations will be addressed,’ said Kerry.
‘The statement will make it very clear that the bill does not violate our sovereignty or seeks to micro-manage our affairs,’ the foreign minister said.
Senator Kerry said ‘We want to set the record straight and clear so that the bill is not misinterpreted or miss-characterised,’ the senator said.
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