Bring India to table, Bilawal urges world

Former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is heading a parliamentary delegation to the West, on Saturday urged the international community to play its role in ensuring permanent peace in South Asia, including resolution of the longstanding Kashmir dispute, water issues and terrorism through a composite dialogue which, he said, India was unwilling to pursue.

Addressing a news conference for the international media in Brussels, the PPP chairman stressed that military confrontation was not a solution to the Kashmir issue or terrorism.

"Dialogue is the only way forward," he stressed, calling on the international community to actively engage with India to defuse tensions.

"It is a moral obligation for the international community to encourage both sides to engage in diplomacy for regional peace," he said, reiterating that Pakistan was seeking a bilateral composite dialogue to resolve all outstanding issues.

Bilawal also addressed the regional conflict involving Iran, saying, "We certainly do not want a war on this border (with Iran). Pakistan has condemned the strikes that took place over the last couple of days on our neighbouring country."

"We will continue to advocate for peace on all our borders, be it with Afghanistan, Iran, or India. We absolutely cannot afford this conflict in Iran to turn into Iraq 2.0 or World War III," he said.

He warned that it had become "far too easy to have a war every month", adding that war seemed to have become the default response to any conflict or dispute.

Calling on the international community to "immediately impose a ceasefire in this Iranian conflict with occupying forces in Palestine," Bilawal stressed, "We cannot have perpetual war. It serves none of our interests".