Pakistan
must protect US interests, says Obama
WASHINGTON:
President Barack Obama warned on Thursday that the United States would not feel
comfortable in a long-term strategic relationship with Pakistan if it did not
protect US interests as well.In a 90-minute news conference at the White House, the US leader focused mainly on domestic issues, chiding banks, showing irritation with the Wall Street and urging lawmakers to help him create jobs.
This was Mr Obama’s first news conference since his former military chief Admiral Mike Mullen told a Senate hearing two weeks ago that Pakistan was encouraging the Haqqani network of militants to attack US and Nato targets in Afghanistan.
A journalist pushed aside the domestic agenda and asked President Obama if he agreed with Admiral Mullen’s accusation that Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI had used the Haqqani network as a virtual arm.
“And what, if any consequences, up to and including a cut-off of aid, would you be willing to consider?” the journalist asked.
“There’s no doubt that we’re not going to feel comfortable with a long-term strategic relationship with Pakistan if we don’t think that they’re mindful of our interests as well,” said the president.
“We will constantly evaluate our relationship with Pakistan based on (what it does) to protect Americans and our interests,” he added.
“And there is no doubt that there’re some connections that the Pakistani military and intelligence services have with certain individuals that we find troubling. And I’ve said that publicly and I’ve said it privately to Pakistani officials as well.”
The remarks alarmed Pakistani diplomats in Washington who were recently warned by their lobbyists that the US anger with Pakistan’s alleged links to the Haqqanis was not over yet.
The lobbyists also warned the Pakistanis not to be too comfortable with recent conciliatory statements from the White House and the State Department as the Americans were not going to give up their demand for a military operation against the group.
“Yes, there is some anger, some misgivings about the Pakistani military and the ISI in this country,” said former president Pervez Musharraf, who is currently in Washington with a plan to meet more than a dozen senior US lawmakers and to persuade them to soften their attitudes towards Pakistan. “They do see a link between the ISI and the Haqqanis,” said Mr Musharraf. “Now it is up to us to help them get rid of these misconceptions.”
President Obama’s remarks, however, show that those lobbying for Pakistan “have their work cut out for them,” as a senior Pakistani diplomat said. “With respect to Pakistan … my number one goal is to make sure that Al Qaeda cannot attack the US homeland and cannot affect US interests around the world,” Mr Obama said. “And we have done an outstanding job, I think, in going after, directly, Al Qaeda in this border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.”
The US president acknowledged that the Americans could not have been as successful as they have been without the cooperation of the Pakistan government.
“On a whole range of issues they have been an effective partner with us,” he said.
But Mr Obama complained that the Pakistanis were dragging their feet in Afghanistan.
The main US goal, he said, was to be able to transition out of Afghanistan and leave a stable government behind that was independent, respectful of human rights, and democratic.
“And Pakistan, I think, has been more ambivalent about some of our goals there,” he said.“I think that they have hedged their bets in terms of what Afghanistan would look like. And part of hedging their bets is having interactions with some of the unsavoury characters who they think might end up regaining power in Afghanistan after coalition forces have left,” Mr Obama said.
“What we’ve tried to persuade Pakistan of is that it is in their interest to have a stable Afghanistan; that they should not be feeling threatened by a stable, independent Afghanistan.”
To ease tensions between the two countries, the US had tried to get conversations between Afghans and Pakistanis going more effectively than they have been in the past, he said. “But we’ve still got more work to do.”
Mr Obama also showed a rare understanding of Pakistan’s concerns in Afghanistan, pointing out that “they see their security interests threatened by an independent Afghanistan, in part because they think it will ally itself to India and Pakistan still considers India their mortal enemy.”
The US, he said, was also trying to allay these fears.
“Part of what we want to do is actually get Pakistan to realise that a peaceful approach towards India would be in everybody’s interests and would help Pakistan actually develop,” he said.“Because one of the biggest problems we have in Pakistan right now is poverty, illiteracy, a lack of development, civil institutions that aren’t strong enough to deliver for the Pakistani people.”
That’s the environment that encourages extremism to grow, said Mr Obama, adding that the US was trying to make Pakistan realise that militancy “doesn’t just threaten our efforts in Afghanistan but also threatens the Pakistani government and the Pakistan people.”
Asked if the US could stop its assistance to push Pakistan to accept its demands, Mr Obama said his administration had “a great desire” to help the Pakistani people strengthen their own society and government.
Afghanistan
marks 10 years since war
KABUL:
Afghanistan marked 10 years since the start of the US-led war against the
Taliban Friday, with security tight after a string of bold insurgent attacks
that have diminished hopes for an enduring peace.
The anniversary will be marked in quiet fashion, with little to commemorate the long years of conflict that have cost thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars.
On the frontlines, it is likely to be business as usual for the 140,000 international troops in Afghanistan, including 100,000 from the United States, as they continue to battle the Taliban-led insurgency.
For many Afghans, the anniversary will be a time for reflection on what the war has meant for their country and the implications of the withdrawal of all foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.
"I spent a year in the city of Kabul during the Taliban regime and they made life difficult as they banned everything. We were forced to flee the country and live in Pakistan," said Abdul Saboor, a 30-year-old cook in Kabul.
"I was very pleased when finally the dark era of the Taliban ended in our country."
But the anniversary will also heighten discontent over the long conflict that has left Afghanistan with a corrupt government, a widely criticised Western troop presence and only dim prospects for peace.
Street vendor Khan Agha, 30, highlighted public anger over civilian casualties and supported calls for foreign troops to leave.
"Since the Americans and their allies came to Afghanistan, our security has deteriorated and they have also been involved in the killings of innocent Afghan civilians," he said.
Security is being stepped up in the capital after a string of major attacks including the assassination of peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani, which has thrown government strategy for talking peace with the Taliban into turmoil.
"There will be more security, more checks. Police will be on high alert," a senior Afghan government official told AFP.
"There will be some preparations like more security and more checks."
Around 200 Afghans called for the withdrawal of foreign troops and shouted
anti-American slogans at a protest in Kabul on the eve of the anniversary.
They shouted "Death to America and its Afghan puppets" and torched an American flag at the end of their march through the city centre, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
The war was launched to oust the Taliban for harbouring Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden who plotted the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, and destroy Al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan.
On October 7, 2001, just under a month after the 9/11 strikes, American planes dropped dozens of cruise missiles and laser-guided bombs on strategic targets in Kabul and other Afghan cities.
That was followed by a ground campaign which defeated the Taliban within weeks. Insurgents lay dormant in Afghan and Pakistani hideouts for the next few years, severely depleted by the invasion.
US attention then turned to the war in Iraq, but violence flared back up again around 2007 and 2008, prompting a surge in the number of troops sent to fight the Taliban.
As those troops begin to withdraw ahead of 2014, the Taliban have increasingly focused on launching targeted attacks against foreign forces as well as the Afghan military and authorities.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) argues this shows it is winning the fight on Afghanistan's battlefields.
Experts argue that the 10th anniversary finds Afghanistan at a key turning point.
"Time is running out to leave Afghanistan in an acceptable shape that would justify the time, money, and lives spent in expanding the mission from counter-terrorism to state building," said Terry Pattar, senior consultant at defence intelligence group IHS Jane's.
Patar said there were "major doubts" over whether the Afghan government could enforce stability after foreign troops leave and predicted an eventual pact with the insurgents.
"There will have to be some form of rapprochement with elements of the Taliban if Afghanistan is not going to descend back into civil war." (AFP)
The anniversary will be marked in quiet fashion, with little to commemorate the long years of conflict that have cost thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars.
On the frontlines, it is likely to be business as usual for the 140,000 international troops in Afghanistan, including 100,000 from the United States, as they continue to battle the Taliban-led insurgency.
For many Afghans, the anniversary will be a time for reflection on what the war has meant for their country and the implications of the withdrawal of all foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.
"I spent a year in the city of Kabul during the Taliban regime and they made life difficult as they banned everything. We were forced to flee the country and live in Pakistan," said Abdul Saboor, a 30-year-old cook in Kabul.
"I was very pleased when finally the dark era of the Taliban ended in our country."
But the anniversary will also heighten discontent over the long conflict that has left Afghanistan with a corrupt government, a widely criticised Western troop presence and only dim prospects for peace.
Street vendor Khan Agha, 30, highlighted public anger over civilian casualties and supported calls for foreign troops to leave.
"Since the Americans and their allies came to Afghanistan, our security has deteriorated and they have also been involved in the killings of innocent Afghan civilians," he said.
Security is being stepped up in the capital after a string of major attacks including the assassination of peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani, which has thrown government strategy for talking peace with the Taliban into turmoil.
"There will be more security, more checks. Police will be on high alert," a senior Afghan government official told AFP.
"There will be some preparations like more security and more checks."
Around 200 Afghans called for the withdrawal of foreign troops and shouted
anti-American slogans at a protest in Kabul on the eve of the anniversary.
They shouted "Death to America and its Afghan puppets" and torched an American flag at the end of their march through the city centre, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
The war was launched to oust the Taliban for harbouring Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden who plotted the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, and destroy Al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan.
On October 7, 2001, just under a month after the 9/11 strikes, American planes dropped dozens of cruise missiles and laser-guided bombs on strategic targets in Kabul and other Afghan cities.
That was followed by a ground campaign which defeated the Taliban within weeks. Insurgents lay dormant in Afghan and Pakistani hideouts for the next few years, severely depleted by the invasion.
US attention then turned to the war in Iraq, but violence flared back up again around 2007 and 2008, prompting a surge in the number of troops sent to fight the Taliban.
As those troops begin to withdraw ahead of 2014, the Taliban have increasingly focused on launching targeted attacks against foreign forces as well as the Afghan military and authorities.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) argues this shows it is winning the fight on Afghanistan's battlefields.
Experts argue that the 10th anniversary finds Afghanistan at a key turning point.
"Time is running out to leave Afghanistan in an acceptable shape that would justify the time, money, and lives spent in expanding the mission from counter-terrorism to state building," said Terry Pattar, senior consultant at defence intelligence group IHS Jane's.
Patar said there were "major doubts" over whether the Afghan government could enforce stability after foreign troops leave and predicted an eventual pact with the insurgents.
"There will have to be some form of rapprochement with elements of the Taliban if Afghanistan is not going to descend back into civil war." (AFP)
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Business News
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Thu, 6 October 2011
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