Foreign Debt Is Fast Becoming a Diplomatic Key Against Terrorism

ROME, SEPT. 25, 2001 (Zenit.org).- After the attacks on the United States, the diplomatic and military offensive is shifting to an unexpected front: external debt as a weapon to win strategic allies.

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It has already given good results in the case of India and Pakistan. On Monday, the United States decided to renegotiate the $375.4 billion debt of the latter, a key country in the offensive against the terrorist-sheltering Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw, on a visit to Iran, was set to ask President Mohammad Khatami for his “collaboration” in finding terrorist Imad Mughniyeh, suspected of being involved in the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.

Some countries, anxious to ease their debt, have hastened to express their solidarity with the United States. These include North Korea and Sudan, a former sanctuary of Osama bin Laden.

Diplomatic sources in Rome told ZENIT that other Third World countries are lining up to collaborate with the U.S. effort to root out terrorist bases in exchange for the renegotiation or cancellation of their debt.

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ZENIT Staff

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