Alwaght- Pakistan foreign minister has rejected as "contrary to facts" US State Department’s account of a phone call between Pakistan's new Prime Minister Imran Khan and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, denying that there was any discussion on militants operating in Pakistan.
In a press conference held here on Friday, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi refuted the US' account of the Khan-Pompeo call, denying that there was any discussion on militants that Washington alleges operate in Pakistan.
The U.S. State Department readout of the call said Pompeo wished Khan success and also asked Khan to take “decisive action against all terrorists operating in Pakistan”.
Pakistani top diplomat, however, rejected on Friday the readout saying “...the impression, which was given... where they’re saying that they mentioned terrorists’ presence in Pakistan, that is against the reality”. “I’m saying it with full confidence,” He added.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry called on the US to amend its statement, but US State Department said it stands by its account.
The row comes ahead of a planned visit by Pompeo to Islamabad in the first week of September to meet with Khan, who was sworn in as prime minister last week.
US officials routinely raise the issue of Taliban and other militants operating from safe havens in Pakistan, where they plot attacks on US and Afghan troops across the border.
Pakistan regularly denies that the Afghan Taliban operates from its soil.
