Pakistan and Iran on Friday, February 17 assured Afghan President Hamid Karzai that they would fully support him in an “Afghan-led” peace process for creating stability in the war-torn country, M&C reported citing DPA.

Karzai, Pakistani Prime Minister Asif Ali Zardari and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pledged to work together towards regional peace and prosperity at a summit in Islamabad while also targeting the United States for many of the area's problems.

Without naming the U.S., Ahmadinejad criticized it for trying to dominate the region and accused it of being the root cause of all regional problems.

“These problems have been imposed on the region,” he said at a joint press conference. “All problems are coming from outside.”

Zardari said his country's relations with Iran could not be “undermined” by any international pressure, a reference to a planned multibillion-dollar Iranian-Pakistani gas pipeline that is opposed by the U.S.