US has ‘concerns’ over Pakistan’s nukes: Clinton

WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is currently safe, but Washington has ‘concerns’ over what could happen if the advancing Taliban topples the government, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an interview with Fox News on Saturday.

The security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is ‘an issue that we have very adamant assurances about from the Pakistani military and government. We’ve done a lot of work over the years evaluating that,’ Clinton told Fox News in an interview in Baghdad.

‘I think that the current thinking of our government is that it is safe,’ she said, according to a transcript of the interview. ‘But that’s given the current configuration of power in Pakistan.

‘One of our concerns, which we’ve raised with the Pakistani government and military is that if the worst, the unthinkable were to happen, and this advancing Taliban encouraged and supported by Al-Qaeda and other extremists were to essentially topple the government for failure to beat them back — then they would have the keys to the nuclear arsenal of Pakistan,’ Clinton said.

‘We can’t even contemplate that. We cannot, you know, let this go on any further. Which is why we’re pushing so hard for the Pakistanis to come together around a strategy to take their country back,’ Clinton told Fox.

More than 1,800 people have been killed in a wave of Al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked extremist attacks across Pakistan since July 2007, when the military stormed the occupied Red Mosque in Islamabad.

The United States voiced concerns on Thursday over advances by the Taliban in Pakistan and said the issue was taking up a significant amount of President Barack Obama’s time.

US urges other nations to fight extremists in Pakistan

WASHINGTON: The United States said on Monday that the entire international community should join Pakistan in confronting violent extremists like those who now run the Swat valley.

‘Violent extremism needs to be confronted not just by Pakistan but the entire international community,’ said State Department spokesman Robert Wood when asked to comment on the situation in Swat.

The US, he said, would continue to work with the government of Pakistan and the government of Afghanistan to try to help root out these violent extremists.

‘They're a threat to democracy and stability in the region, and we call on all those who are interested in bringing about stability to that region to work with us to root out violent extremism,’ Mr Wood added.

The US spokesman was also asked to comment on a media report that quoted a Taliban spokesman in Swat as saying that Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar were welcome to the valley.

‘With regard to Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden, this is not a place where they should be welcome,’ said Mr Wood. ‘We believe that violent extremists need to be confronted.’

Asked if Pakistan had officially protested over civilian casualties in US drone attacks, the State Department official said: ‘I'm not aware of anything at this point.’ ‘So they haven't voiced their concerns?’ he was asked again. ‘I'm not aware of it,’ he said.

Mr Wood also disagreed with a media report that a quoted a Pakistani minister as saying that the US had failed in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

‘It's not a question of whether people perceive what has happened up until now as a failure or success. We've got some severe challenges that we have to meet,’ he said.

The US, he said, was working hard with other countries to try to bring about a stable Afghanistan and a stable Pakistani border with Afghanistan. ‘This is not going to be easy.’

Referring to the Tokyo conference last week where the US worked with other nations to raise $5.28 billion for Pakistan, Mr Wood said with this the US moved into the implementation phase, working with other governments who share its concerns.

‘And the government of Pakistan knows that we are a dependable ally and that we are going to work very hard to do what we can.’

The pledges made in Tokyo, he said, showed that there’s a clear international commitment to Pakistan. The US, he said, was also aware that it faced a public opinion problem in Pakistan. The US and Pakistani government were trying to address this issue, he added.

‘What we hope to do (is) to show by our commitment in terms of assistance to Pakistan in our solidarity with Pakistani people, we're trying to show that America is in the corner of Pakistan and we want to help Pakistan.’

‘And so it's a very difficult problem, and it's going to take time to deal with but we are trying to address it, and we will continue to try.’

The US, he said, also faced a trust deficit in Pakistan and was working on ‘a whole range of issues’ to overcome this problem.

‘There is certainly a commitment on the part of the government of Pakistan to address this issue, as on the part of the US government.’

Holbrooke also said that Pakistan faced a ‘very difficult economic situation’ as well and needed immediate help

Situation dangerous in Pakistan: Holbrooke

In an interview to CNN, Holbrooke said that Pakistan also faced a ‘very difficult economic situation’ and needed immediate help.

‘This is a really dangerous situation in Pakistan today and we are focused on this very heavily,’ said Holbrooke.

Asked if the terrorist threat could cause Pakistan to collapse, the US envoy said that President Asif Ali Zardari and other Pakistani leaders too conceded that it was a very dangerous situation.

‘Swat is not in the tribal areas. It is only 100 miles from Islamabad … it is like East Hampton and Manhattan … people from Islamabad went to Swat for holidays … it is really an extraordinary situation.’

‘Pakistan mattered to the national security of the United States; ‘These are the people who can attack Mumbai, who attack Islamabad, Holbrooke said.

David Axelrod, a senior adviser to President Obama, told ‘CBS Face the Nation’ that Pakistan needed to ‘really focus in on what is a threat to their own stability and what is a threat to the security of the world.’

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, however, told ABC News that the Obama administration had put ‘in place a policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan area that will change that area’ and bring stability to the region.

Axelrod said the biggest threat confronting Pakistan was the ‘growing hegemony of the Taliban and allies of Al Qaeda’ and urged Pakistanis to realise how serious this threat was.

Ambassador Holbrooke termed the current situation in Pakistan as ‘very perilous’ and claimed that the militants operating from Swat and Fata had already increased their reach to Punjab. ‘There can be more terrorist attacks in cities like Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi,’ he warned.

He said the Swat truce always seemed like a confused deal to him.

The Pakistani military, he said, felt that it was ‘stretched thin’ and that’s why it concluded this deal.

Holbrooke pointed out that if the Pakistani military wanted to persuade the militants to lay down their arms by concluding this deal, it did not succeed in doing so.

The chief spokesman for the Swat Taliban ‘publicly renounced the part of the deal that requires the militants to lay down arms,’ he said.

‘You cannot deal with these people by giving away territory. They are now getting closer and closer to Islamabad and Punjab.’

Ambassador Holbrooke said he was witnessing a ‘very dangerous phenomenon’ in Swat which had equally dangerous consequences for both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The US envoy, however, acknowledged that ‘hitting the militants hard” will not help.

‘First of all, we need to do deal with economic and social roots,’ he said, adding that more economic aid was needed to do away with the breeding grounds for the kind of rebellions witnessed in Swat more than once.

Holbrooke said Pakistan also needed to strengthen its military, particularly the Frontier Corps, to deal with the terrorists and also needed to win the propaganda battle.

Asked who ran Pakistan, President Zardari or Gen Ashfaq Kayani, Holbrooke said: ‘The clear answer is that Mr Zardari is the president, and Gen Kayani is the army chief.’

The Pakistani constitution, he said, gave more powers to the president but the army had played a very powerful role.

Gen Kayani, he said, was a ‘sincere, intelligent and decent person,’ who has said ‘does not wish to get involved in political issues and we believe him.’

US warming up to Sharif

Obama administration wants to broaden political support for the fight against terrorists in Pakistan.

WASHINGTON: The United States is quietly warming up to the PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif as the Obama administration looks to broaden political support for the fight against terrorists in Pakistan.

The latest indication of renewed US interest in the former Pakistani prime minister was noticed in Washington this week when one of his close aides, Ahsan Iqbal, visited the US capital.

Mr Iqbal is a regular visitor to Washington and comes here almost every summer, meeting mainly prominent Pakistani-Americans and addressing PML-N meetings. But this time his presence was also noticed by ‘important Americans,’ as a PML-N supporter described his meetings in Washington.

Although his reported meetings with senior Obama administration officials are not confirmed, he did meet a number of influential US policy makers and scholars at half a dozen Washington think-tanks he visited or spoke at. These included several major think-tanks as well, such as the Council on Foreign Relations, the Atlantic Council and the Woodrow Wilson Centre.

When asked after these meetings if he believed the US would support a change of government in Pakistan at this stage, Mr Iqbal said: ‘There will probably be no need for such a change.’

He indicated that Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistani military were working together to reform the present system of governance in Pakistan instead of seeking yet another regime change. The United States supported this effort.

‘We believe that the 17th amendment will be removed from the constitution,’ Mr Iqbal said. ‘The prime minister and the parliament will be empowered and the president will have as much power as a head of state does in the British parliamentary system.’

If this happens, ‘there will be no need to remove Mr Zardari. He can complete his tenure.’

A recent report in The Washington Post also confirmed Mr Iqbal’s ‘loud-thinking,’ as he described his thoughts. According to this report, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and special envoy Richard Holbrooke made several telephone calls to Mr Sharif during the judicial crisis.

‘The American officials signalled to Mr Sharif that they wouldn't object to his becoming president or prime minister some day. Another key intermediary was David Miliband, the British foreign secretary, who urged dialogue with Mr Sharif,’ the report said.

The Post reported that when Ambassador Holbrooke and Chairman US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen visited Islamabad last week, they ‘reinforced the deal.’

‘They saw the key players and came away hoping that the three could form a united front against the Taliban insurgency in the Western frontier areas, rather than continue their political squabbling,’ the report added.

The three key players discussed in this report are President Zardari, Mr Sharif and army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani.

The report confirmed that instead of seeking to remove Mr Zardari, the Americans are backing the effort spearheaded by Gen. Kayani to bring about a political system in which powers of the prime minister, the parliament and the president are clearly defined.

The report indicated that if this happens, Mr Sharif will be a clear winner but Mr Iqbal hinted that instead of trying to topple Mr Zardari, Mr Sharif would prefer to support the emerging political infrastructure while staying out of the government.

This would place Mr Sharif in a very comfortable position. He would be able to influence all important decisions made by the government without having to face the consequences if the decisions go wrong.

Diplomatic sources in Washington say that the Obama administration confronted a major dilemma when it started working on a new strategy for Pakistan and Afghanistan in February: Can Mr Sharif be a reliable partner in the fight against extremists? Or will he use his popular support to blunt the military’s already fitful campaign against the insurgency of the Taliban and al Qaeda?

The Bush administration had rejected the populist politician because of his close ties to religious parties. But the Obama administration decided to work with him.

Pak aid will be with strings

Pak aid will be with strings: US
Published: April 15, 2009
Pak aid will be with strings: US

WASHINGTON - Ignoring Pakistan’s demands that United States not attach conditions to a non-military aid
package, a State Department spokesman said Tuesday that the assistance would have to be with benchmarks.
“I think you would expect when the US taxpayer is providing money - assistance to a country, that we want to
make sure that we’re not only getting our money’s worth but that certain things that we care about, we want to
see that they be dealt with,” Spokesman Robert Wood told reporters at the regular news briefing.
“So we have said, we will provide and would like to provide USD 1.5 billion over a five-year period to Pakistan,
but, clearly, we want there - we are going to establish benchmarks. We want to see certain standards and goals
met,” Wood said.
“That’s something you would expect that we would - we would be willing do,” Wood said in response to a
question.
The Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry, is poised to introduce a bill to
massively increase non-military assistance for cash-strapped Pakistan, a key ally on the US war on terror.
Another Democrat, Congressman Howard Berman, has introduced a separate draft bill that aims to triple
economic assistance to $1.5b per year until 2013 and shore up democratic rule with conditions attached.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration Tuesday expressed disappointment over an accord signed by President
Asif Ali Zardari that allows enforcement of Sharia law in Malakand, which includes Swat region, terming it
against human rights and democracy.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that the the administration believed that 'solutions involving security
in Pakistan don’t include less democracy and less human rights.
“The signing of that denoting strict Islamic law in the Swat Valley goes against both of those principles.”
“We are disappointed the Parliament did not take into account legitimate concerns around civil and human
rights.”