The US military commander and regional troubleshooter yesterday held key talks in Pakistan, where Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari told them his country was fighting terror for its survival.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Richard Holbrooke, special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, arrived late on Monday for talks on Washington’s sweeping new strategy to defeat al-Qaeda and its allies.
It is the first top-level visit since US President Barack Obama put Pakistan at the heart of the fight against al-Qaeda, unveiling a new strategy nine days ago to commit thousands more troops and billions of dollars to the Afghan war.
“Pakistan is fighting a battle for its own survival,” a statement issued by the presidency quoted Zardari as telling Mullen and Holbrooke during their talks.
“The president said the government would not succumb to any pressure by militants,” it said, despite Zardari sparking controversy in the West with a call for dialogue with those who lay down their arms.
The talks covered regional security issues, the Afghanistan strategy announced by Obama less than two weeks ago and a recent surge in militancy and extremism in the region, the presidency said.
Pakistani officials said the US visitors were scheduled to hold separate talks with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Quresh before leaving for India later yesterday.
The visit came as the New York Times again reported that the US intended to step up drone attacks on militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas, which border Afghanistan, and might extend them deeper inside Pakistan.
The newspaper said “officials” proposed broadening the missile strikes by unmanned aircraft to Pakistan’s southwest province of Baluchistan, which comes under federal government control, unless Pakistan reduces incursions by militants.
Pakistan is deeply opposed to the drone attacks — around 37 of which have killed over 360 people since August last year — saying they violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment in the nuclear-armed nation.
The country has paid dearly for its alliance with the US in its “war on terror.” Militant attacks have killed more than 1,700 people since July 2007.
Pakistan angrily rejects criticism that it does not do more to quash Taliban and al-Qaeda militants holed up on the Afghan border, pointing to the deaths of more than 1,500 troops killed at the hands of Islamist extremists since 2002.
The country’s powerful intelligence services — which have a history of supporting Islamist militants to fight in Indian-controlled Kashmir and in Afghanistan — are under tough US pressure to sever ties with extremists.
On Monday, Gilani chaired high-level Pakistani national security talks and announced in a statement that “a comprehensive and integrated policy ... will be devised to eradicate completely the scourge of terrorism and extremism.”
Cash-strapped Pakistan is keenly awaiting a US aid package that aims to triple economic assistance to US$7.5 billion over five years.
Although the aid bill meets some long-standing requests for military equipment, it requires the White House to certify that Pakistan is fighting terror and that its military and intelligence services do not support extremists.
Pakistan must also close all terror camps in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and work to prevent cross-border attacks into Afghanistan.
“What is expected in the coming months is intensification of the campaign in search of al-Qaeda and its local allies in Pakistan,” analyst Imtiaz Gul told reporters when asked about the significance of the US visit. “Drone attacks are a reality that Pakistanis shall have to live with.”
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
RSS