Bush Waives Coup-Related Sanctions on Pakistan
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March 14 — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush on Friday waived sanctions on Pakistan imposed after President Pervez Musharraf seized power in a 1999 bloodless coup.
Pakistan, a key ally in the U.S. war on terror, is a member of the Security Council whose vote on a second resolution setting the stage for a war in Iraq has been hotly courted by the United States.
In a written statement, Bush said lifting the sanctions would facilitate the transition to democratic rule in Pakistan and was important to U.S. efforts to fight international terrorism.
Bush and Pakistani Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali will meet at the White House on March 28.
"The leaders will discuss bilateral, regional, international issues, as well as our close cooperation between the United States and Pakistan in the war on terror," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
The waiver clears the way for Pakistan to receive about $250 million in economic aid approved by Congress earlier this year, congressional aides said.
Shunned by the international community for seizing power, Musharraf moved from near-pariah status to being courted by major world figures when he signed up to the U.S.-led war on terrorism in neighboring Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
Musharraf, who has formally handed power to a civilian government in Pakistan after three years at the helm, is a key ally in the U.S. campaign against the Taliban, al Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, al Qaeda's operations chief and a top bin Laden lieutenant, was captured in Pakistan on March 1. He is being questioned by U.S. authorities in an undisclosed third country. |
