Pakistan urges restraint as US deploys bombers, aircraft carriers in Persian Gulf

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’ foreign office Thursday described the developments in the Persian Gulf as "disturbing" and asked all sides to show restraint as a miscalculated move can transmute into a large-scale conflict.

“The United States’ decision to deploy aircraft carrier and bombers has added to the tensions and the existing precarious security situation in Middle East. We expect all sides to show restraint as a miscalculated move can transmute into a large-scale conflict," Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said in a weekly briefing in Islamabad.

Faisal said the issues between the US and Iran should be resolved through negotiations and talks as war was not an option.

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Islamabad’s statement follows last week’s decision to send the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and several B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf region as Trump administration is ratcheting up anti-Iran rhetoric over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan reportedly presented a plan to President Donald Trump that could send as many as 120,000 troops to the region.

In the latest move, Washington has ordered an evacuation of all non-essential and non-emergency staff in Iraq, including the US embassy in Baghdad and consulate in Erbil.

Iran recently said it would resume enriching uranium at higher levels if a new nuclear deal is not reached by July 7. That would potentially bring it closer to being able to develop a nuclear weapon, something Iran insists it has never sought.

The country's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, on the other hand, says no one is seeking war.

50 Pakistanis deported from US

The FO spokesman also took up the issue of deportation of Pakistani nationals from US, saying it has been part of the bilateral agenda between the two countries for quite some time.

Pakistan's position has been consistent and clear that only those individuals can be deported to Pakistan who have exhausted all legal remedies to stay in the US and have also been duly verified by the government of Pakistan as Pakistani nationals, he added.

The FO spokesman also confirmed that around 50 deported Pakistani arrived in Islamabad through a chartered flight on Wednesday.