ISLAMABAD - The United States called on Pakistan Friday to squeeze Haqqani militants within ?days and weeks?, while Pakistan, expressing its wish for greater cooperation, categorically said that it prefers dialogue with the insurgents and any military action will only be taken after a decision by the parliament.
Unusually accompanied by CIA director David Petraeus and the top US military officer General Martin Dempsey, Hillary Clinton held talks with Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Friday. Later, addressing a joint news conference with the foreign minister at the foreign office, she said Islamabad has a ?critical role in supporting Afghanistan reconciliation and ending the conflict?.
?We look to Pakistan to take strong steps to deny Afghan insurgents safe havens and to encourage the Taliban to enter negotiations in good faith? Now we have to turn our attention here on the Pakistani Taliban, Afghan Taliban, Haqqanis and other terrorist groups and try to get them into a peace process,? the US top envoy said but she seemed suspicious of the success of talks and too impatient for a military action as she was quick to add that ?if that failed, (we will have to) prevent them from committing more violence and murdering more innocent people.?
She went on to say, ?Militants should be targeted on both sides of the border and action should be taken within days and not weeks and months.?
Pakistani policy makers have argued that military operations offer limited gains and that now is the time to concentrate on a comprehensive reconciliation ahead of the planned Nato withdrawal from Afghanistan. It has so far refused to open a new front in North Waziristan, arguing that its troops are too overstretched and that the country has already sacrificed too many lives.
Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar emphatically stated that all relationships between Pakistan and foreign countries are based on national interest and the relationship between Pakistan and the United States is no exception. She said in the evolution of the future strategy, Pakistan government will be guided by the principles of resolution of the All-Party Conference (APC), which called upon the government to ?give peace a chance?.
She said like any other sovereign nation, its state institutions were devising Pakistan?s strategies with Parliament having greater supremacy. She said All-Party Conference (APC) resolution was a united voice for Pakistan, adding that the parliament had the authority to decide for the country?s chief executive to take any military action.
Hillary said she saw APC resolution as a very significant document and termed it a very important public commitment to peace, but insisted that more work was required to hold substantial talks with the militants.
Hina said militants safe havens do exist on both sides of the border but categorically rejected US accusations that elements within its intelligence services support Afghan insurgents. ?Do safe havens exist? Yes, they do exist (on) both sides. Do we need to cooperate? Yes. We can cooperate more and achieve better results? There is no question of any support by any Pakistani institutions to safe havens. Let me be very clear and unequivocal on that,? she said. However, the foreign minister reiterated commitment of Pakistan to fight the menace of terrorism and added that we are doing it in our own interest. She said it is in Pakistan?s national interest to have strong and prosperous Afghanistan.
?I agree with General Kayani?s statement that Pakistan is not Afghanistan, not Iraq. Pakistan is a sovereign nation,? Hillary said in response to a question, adding, ?Pakistan is a sovereign country and Washington will continue to work with Pakistan government and reach out to its people to help them address the different issues. She said we are looking towards furthering the dialogue process in the days ahead to realize our shared goals.
She acknowledged that there are issues on which Pakistan and the United States do not always see eye to eye and these differences cannot be resolved in a single visit. ?There is frustration on both sides, which I recognise,? she said, calling for ?give and take? from both sides. ? ... We are going to stay the course, and do everything we can to try to overcome the difficulties that we have faced together. Because we both have too much at stake. We cannot walk away.? ?We consider working with Pakistan as a very right thing to do and we need the momentum going?, she added.
Both Hina and Hillary described their meeting as ?useful and substantive?, saying that talks focused on the ongoing challenging phase between the two countries and were meant to be constructive to clarify certain mutual misperceptions. Hina said the meeting was directed at finding ways to develop strategic convergence into an operational one.
Hillary also called upon the leaders of Pakistan to reduce corruption and implement development reforms in the country and stressed the Pakistani people to demand these rights. She also supported the enhanced working atmosphere between Pakistan and India with an improved bilateral trade.
Hina said Pakistan believed in an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned solution to the issue of Afghanistan for a sustainable peace in the region. She hoped that the upcoming Istanbul and Bonn Conference, also to be attended by Pakistan, would prove constructive in discussing the issue of peace in Afghanistan.
The foreign minister said we can together work towards peace and build a prosperity to the region, and pointed out that there is no country in the world that is more affected by events in Afghanistan than Pakistan. ?Yes, we can cooperate more and achieve better results. We are keen to cooperate with the United States closely and to evolve a common strategy,? she added. She maintained that Pakistan has suffered most in the war against terror and that is why it is urging the international community to give more trade access to the country. She hoped that the United States will give preferential market access to Pakistan.
The US Secretary of State said her country recognises and respects the sacrifices made by Pakistani people during war on terror which took heavy toll of thirty thousand lives in the country. Hilary clarified that the US was not asking Pakistan to sacrifice its own security. She said Pakistan has a critical role to play in supporting Afghan reconciliation and ending the conflict. She said earlier this year trilateral meetings between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US made a good start and there is need to keep the momentum going.
Hillary said in recent days US and Afghan forces have led a successful operation against the Haqqanis and many dozens have been killed or captured on the Afghan side of the border. She said they recognise the legitimate concerns of Pakistan of cross-border attacks on its security forces and civilians and would do every thing and prevent terrorists on Afghan side.
Hillary said they want similar action from Pakistan so that the Taliban and Haqqanis do not kill any Americans or Afghanistan. She said in addition to military action, intelligence cooperation is needed to prevent the efforts of the militants to plan and cross the border and deny the Pakistani Taliban and the Haqqanis on both sides of the border and that is their mutual goal.
?We respect the challenges that Pakistan faces, and we respect the work we are doing together, including our cooperation against al-Qaida,? she said. ?So terrorism is a challenge we share, and we want to work together to root out all of the extremists who threaten us, including the Taliban and the Haqqani network.?
She said: ?We asked very specifically for greater cooperation from the Pakistani side to squeeze the Haqqani network and other terrorists... Trying to eliminate terrorists and safe havens on one side of the border is not going to work? It?s like that old story: you can?t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbours... Eventually those snakes are going to turn on whoever has them in the backyard.?
?It?s not just military action. There is greater sharing of intelligence so we can prevent and intercept the efforts by the Haqqanis or the Taliban to try to cross the border or to plan an attack,? said Hillary said.
Asked whether she wanted Pakistan to use its military to tackle the Haqqani network head-on or to force it to come to the negotiating table, Hillary replied: ?It?s more the latter.?
?We think that Pakistan for a variety of reasons has the capacity to encourage, to push, to squeeze ... terrorists, including the Haqqanis and the Afghan Taliban, to be willing to engage in the peace process,? she said.
Analysts say the Pakistani military could suffer heavy casualties if it took on the Haqqanis. Sirajuddin Haqqani, head of the network, recently told Reuters he had more than 10,000 fighters under his command.
Hillary then took her case of fighting militancy within Pakistan to what appeared to be largely Western-educated civil society leaders at a town-hall style forum.
To applause and laughter, a businesswoman likened the United States to an unsatisfied mother-in-law, but the atmosphere was less toxic than in 2009 when Hillary heard US drone attacks compared to terror.
Later, she also met with President Asif Ali Zardari and discussed matters of mutual interest. Talking to the foreign dignitary, President Zardari underscored the importance of enhanced consultations between the two countries on the basis of mutual respect, sovereignty and interests.
During the one-on-one and delegation-level meetings, the two sides discussed host of issues relating to Pak-US relations, fight against militancy, regional situation with particular reference to the situation obtaining in Afghanistan.
The president said public criticism of Pakistan?s role undermines its common struggle against militancy in the region. He said, ?Our people and the leadership is among the first ones to fully realise and comprehend the threat posed by violent mindset which is bred on the premises of deprivation and fuelled by sense of inequality.?
President Zardari counted innumerable human sacrifices rendered by Pakistan in fight against militancy and extremism. He said 30,000 innocent civilians along with 5,000 military and police officers laid their lives for the cause of securing their lands from the clutches of militant mind-set.
The president said Pakistan, being the immediate neighbour has abiding interest in the peace, stability, security and prosperity of Afghanistan and will continue to support every effort in this regard.
Hillary appreciated Pakistan?s contribution in promoting reconciliation. She said that US administration desired continued partnership with Pakistan. She agreed with the President?s strong emphasis on promoting trade rather than aid as the vehicle for development cooperation and assured that the US administration was working to facilitate enhanced market access for Pakistani products.
In a roundtable with Pakistani television journalists, Hillary expressed her satisfaction over talks with Pakistani leadership, claiming there was complete agreement with Gen Kayani on more than 90 percent issues and dismissed the impression that US wanted to use Pakistan as a scapegoat for its failure in Afghanistan.
Answering a question, she admitted that US authorities had been in contact with the Haqqani network, as arranged by Pakistani intelligence sources, reportedly belonging to ISI, but denied that any Taliban elements was ever present at the Istanbul Conference
She also admitted that the US never had plausible evidence about ISI?s involvement in attacks on US embassy and CIA headquarters in Kabul.
Answering another question, she assured that there would be no future incursions by American ?military boots? into Pakistani borders. She expressed her reservations about Pakistan?s collaboration over gas pipeline with ?a complicated and dangerous? neighbour like Iran, whose internal affairs she said were highly vulnerable.
Regarding President Asif Ali Zardari?s letter to the US counterpart President Barack Obama for American aid, she said that she had no information regarding the issue.
Following two days of talks in Afghanistan and Pakistan designed to hasten an end to the 10-year war Hillary said that ?we do not see any contradiction? between fighting and talking. ?And we want more coordination between the United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan for what must be, with respect to the conflict, an Afghan-led effort,? the chief US diplomat said.
?We believe that there is now an opportunity for us to begin talking, but there is no guarantee that the talking will result in anything that will move us toward a peaceful resolution,? Hillary Clinton said. ?We are going to continue fighting where necessary to protect our interests, and so are the Pakistani military because you cannot allow terrorists to gain ground,? she said.
?But we are also open to talking. We have reached out to the Taliban, we have reached out to the Haqqani network to test their willingness and their sincerity,? she said. ?And we?re now working among us Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States to try to put together a process that would sequence us toward an actual negotiation,? she said.
But referring to the meeting with the Haqqani network, she said ?we?re not in any kind of negotiations. We?ve had one preliminary meeting just to see if they would show up.?
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/today-headlines/~3/WRfA8jqQRYQ/US-wants-action-in-days-Pakistan-for-talks-first
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