He was addressing a press conference before his departure to Washington for an Iftar-dinner meeting with US President and Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday evening. This press conference began with question and answer session as the president opted to give a chance to journalist to ask as many questions, as they wanted.
President General Pervez Musharraf described his visit to the United States as 'very successful' during which he has been able to remove misperception about Pakistan, especially the peace deal the government has signed with the tribal elders in North Waziristan.
"It has been a very successful visit," he told reporters. He said the high point of the visit was success in changing the perception about Pakistan's role in the anti-terror campaign and its contribution to fight the menace. The President made a strong case that the Taliban insurgency was rooted in Afghanistan and cited a new United Nations report, which upheld his viewpoint that it was an Afghan phenomenon.
He said the UN Secretary General report on the situation in Afghanistan clearly says that the foot soldiers of the insurgency are Afghans, recruited within Afghanistan.
The report has identified five distinct leadership centre of the Taliban, appearing to act in loose co-ordination with each other and benefiting from financial and operational link with the drug trafficking network.
IFTAR-DINNER: President General Pervez Musharraf will meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai and US President George W Bush at Iftar-dinner at the White House. The three leaders, sources said, would discus a wide range of international issues but Pak-Afghan relations in the light of new spat of accusations from both sides regarding the presence of Mullah Omer and Osama bin Laden either in Pakistan or Afghanistan would be the highlight of their discussion.
The recent agreement Pakistan has entered into with tribal elders of the North Waziristan area has created misunderstanding in the minds of many Americans as well as in the minds of the Afghans. President Musharraf would explain the nature of the agreement and its benefits.
President Musharraf in his numerous meetings with the American opinion leaders, media and scholars has been explaining the nature of the agreement which is to fight the Taliban and the process of Talibanisation in Pakistan and Afghanistan and this he would further discuss at the Iftar-dinner.
The meeting would focus on developing better understanding between Pakistan and Afghanistan and the common strategy that would help the two countries jointly fighting against evils that is spreading across the two countries and threatening expansion of terrorism.
Development and rehabilitation work in Afghanistan would also come up for discussion. Sources said that this would be a crucial meeting and effective and 'better relations would emerge'. The meeting of the three leaders would be independent of their aides in the beginning. Their aides would later join in.
Earlier, on Tuesday the president addressed a select audience at the Cornell Medical Center. He briefed the audience about the measures he has taken to move toward enlightened moderation, need to be cautious in framing a policy to interact with Israel, development of human resources in Pakistan, fight against terrorism and the amount of success achieved and economic progress in Pakistan. President on Tuesday remained engaged with leading media men and TV channels giving them interviews. From Washington the President would fly to UK for a two-day stay.