Pakistan is trying to sell fighter jets and small arms to Saudi Arabia and not to Syria as some reports claimed, Adviser to Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has said.
He said at this point of time there was no Syria-specific agreement and reaffirmed Pakistan's neutral stance on the vexed Syrian conflict.
Like any country with a flourishing arms industry, Pakistan was trying to sell its arms and there was nothing dubious about Riyadh's interest in purchasing Pakistani weapons, Aziz said an interview to BBC last evening.
On its ties with Iran and Saudi Arabia, he said Pakistan wanted to restore the balance of relations with the two countries which he said had been disturbed during the past five years.
Aziz said not a single Saudi minister had visited the country during the PPP-led previous government but noted that after the PML-N came to power, the government and military leadership of both countries had exchanged visits.
He hoped that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would visit Iran in May or June this year in line with promoting peace in the region.
Speculation had been rife in Pakistan after a joint Pakistan-Saudi declaration in February called for the "formation of a transitional governing body" with full executive powers as part of a solution to the three-year civil war in Syria.
The move was criticised by the opposition in the National Assembly.
Sharif recently said Pakistan was not going to send any troops to Bahrain or Saudi Arabia.
It is being speculated here that the arms that Saudi Arabia would buy from Pakistan would eventually get into the hands of the Syrian rebels.
Adding to the speculation was a USD 1.5 billion "gift" given by a "friendly country" to Pakistan.
Though the government here has remained tight-lipped on the identity of the nation, it is an open secret here that the country in question was Saudi Arabia.
