A long-awaited summit hosted by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts will go ahead in Teheran tomorrow, diplomatic sources said.
The sources confirmed the participation of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghanis-tan's Hamid Karzai in the summit, which will discuss the rebuilding of war-shattered Afghanistan.
The meeting had been expected to go ahead on May 19 but was postponed due to the heavy programme of Mr Zadari.
Iran's ambassador to Islamabad, Mashallah Shakeri, was quoted yesterday on the website of Iranian state-run television as saying Mr Zadari would arrive in Tehran today to take part in the following day's summit.
His comments were confirmed in Islamabad by Pakistani foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit.
"President Zardari is going to Iran. He will attend the summit in Teheran on May 24," Mr Basit said.
Afghanistan's ambassador to Teheran, Mohammad Yahya Ma'aroufi, yesterday confirmed Mr Karzai's participation.
"President Hamid Karzai will arrive in Teheran on tomorrow to take part in the meeting," the ambassador said.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi told AFP that the summit would be held in Teheran at "the beginning of the coming week," without specifying the day. Today is the beginning of the week in Iran.
Meanwhile the UN yesterday called for €326 million in extra humanitarian relief for 1.5 million people displaced by the ongoing military offensive in northwest Pakistan. The UN appeal comes as people continue to stream out of the conflict zone into camps set up in different parts of the North West Frontier Province.
A UN statement said that €63 million had already been provided or committed by donors but aid agencies and NGOs needed €326 million in extra funds urgently to help the internally displaced.
The money is also needed to provide continuing support to 550,000 people who had fled the situation since August last year.
"The scale of this displacement is extraordinary in terms of size and speed, and has caused incredible suffering," the statement quoted the acting UN humanitarian coordinator, Martin Mogwanja as saying.