UNITED STATES LAWMAKERS FREEZE $700 MILLION TO PAKISTAN

WASHINGTON: The leaders of a US House-Senate negotiating panel said on Monday they had agreed to freeze $700 million in US aid to Pakistan until it provides some assurances of assistance in the fight against improvised explosive devices in the region.

The explosive devices are among militants’ most effective weapons against US and coalition troops in Afghanistan. Many are made using ammonium nitrate, a common fertilizer shipped across the border from Pakistan. The freeze on US aid was agreed as part of a defence bill that is expected to be passed this week. The United States wants “assurances that Pakistan is countering improvised explosive devices in their country that are targeting our coalition forces,” Representative Howard McKeon, a House Republican, told reporters.

The United States has allocated some $20 billion in security and economic aid to Pakistan since 2001, much of it in the form of reimbursements for assistance in fighting militants. But US lawmakers have expressed increasing frustration with Pakistan’s efforts in the war. There have been numerous proposals to make US aid to Pakistan conditional on more cooperation in fighting militants such as the Haqqani network Washington believes operate out of Pakistan and battle US troops in Afghanistan.

US lawmakers allege that many Afghan bombs are made with fertilizer smuggled by militants across the border from Pakistan into Afghanistan. “The vast majority of the material used to make improvised explosive devices used against US forces in Afghanistan originates from two fertilizer factories inside Pakistan,” Senator John McCain, a Republican, said in the Senate last week. The provision freezing $700 million in aid to Pakistan was agreed upon by leaders of the armed services committees from both parties in the House and Senate, including McCain. It is part of compromise legislation authorising US defence programs expected to be approved this week, McKeon said. He said the bill would also require the Pentagon to deliver a strategy for improving the effectiveness of US aid to Pakistan.

Pakistan wants those responsible for attack punished

ISLAMABAD: Setting terms for renewal of ties with the United States, Pakistan has sought punishment for and an ‘apology’ from those responsible for Saturday’s deadly NATO attack on two of its border posts.

The demand, military sources say, was made through a letter sent to Washington earlier this week. “Nothing short of this will be acceptable,” a senior official said in a background interview with News Agency, adding that Pakistan would otherwise be constrained to “reconsider its partnership in the war on terror”. Even as the inquiry initiated by the US military is yet to identify who, if anyone, is culpable, a Pakistani general at a media briefing on Tuesday said that International Security Assistance Force chief Gen John Allen was ultimately responsible in his capacity as commander. However, military officials would not explicitly say if they would like to see his (General Allen’s) exit.

Moreover, the US has been asked to clarify why its helicopters returned to attack the post after they had disengaged following contacts between senior Pakistani and Isaf commanders. Civilian and military leaderships from both sides have been interacting quite regularly to find the way forward, but the mood in Islamabad and Rawalpindi suggests that no progress is likely until the Americans come up with a ‘tangible response’ to Pakistani demands. Robert Raines, a spokesman for the US Embassy, said discussions were taking place. However, he refused to confirm or deny if any specific demands had been made.

A Pakistani diplomat at the Foreign Office confirmed the demand and said Washington had been categorically told to “stop treating Pakistan as a client state”. Relations between Pakistan and the US have been on a downward spiral since the start of this year, but the most recent incident has made the much talked about likely breakdown in bilateral ties more imminent.

The government has already expressed its fury by blocking crucial Nato supply route, calling for vacation of the Shamsi airbase by Dec 11 and by pulling out of the Bonn conference on Afghanistan. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, in a telephonic conversation with Italian counterpart Giulio Terzi, said the attack reflected the “callous behaviour” of the US and NATO. Maj-General Ishfaq Nadeem, the Director-General of Military Operations, stepped up the rhetoric earlier in the week by claiming that the attack was deliberate.

TOUGH POSTURE: The manner in which the government moved from its initial reaction to the decision to boycott the Bonn conference and the simultaneous toughening of the tone of Pakistani authorities, observers felt, reflected Islamabad’s dissatisfaction with the US response. The US has expressed regrets, offered condolences for the fallen soldiers, and opened investigations into the incident, a report on which is expected by Dec 23.

Comments by General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in an interview with ITV News that there was “absolutely” nothing to apologise are likely to further inflame the situation. The military has proposed a set of five options to be exercised in case Washington refuses to accept its mistake, apologise and punish those responsible. The options remain a closely guarded secret, but military sources say some of them are quite extreme. “We have very few options left with us and we clearly understand their implications,” a Pakistani general said, without elaborating what was being considered.

UNITED STATES WELCOMES ISTANBUL CONFERENCE ON AFGHANISTAN SECURITY

WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday welcomed agreement between Afghanistan,its neighbours, and the wider region on the Istanbul Process on Regional Security and Cooperation for a Secure and Stable Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan’s neighbors and near-neighbors have come together to offer support to a sovereign, independent and democratic Afghanistan,” State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland said in a statement. “They have endorsed Afghan priorities including Afghan-led reconciliation, transition to Afghan security leadership, and regionally integrated economic growth (e.g the New Silk Road vision),” the statement said.

The United States was pleased to participate in the Istanbul conference as a supporter of the process, and they will continue to offer our support to Afghanistan and its region as they work to follow on from the commitments in the declaration to deepen regional cooperation, starting with technical meetings in Kabul in the coming months and a foreign ministerial in Kabul next June, Nuland added. “We look forward to the Bonn Conference for Afghanistan on December 5, at which we will urge the international community to build on these regional efforts by making our long-term commitment to Afghanistan clearer and more specifi,” the spokesperson said.

OVER 30 PEOPLE DETAINED IN ABBOTTABAD INVESTIGATION: HUSAIN HAQQANI

WASHINGTON: Pakistani Ambassador in Washington DC, Husain Haqqani said on Sunday the Intelligence authorities have rounded up more than 30 people and questioned several others as part of the Abbottabad probe.

Ambassador Husain Haqqani revealed that Pakistani intelligence detained or questioned several people to identify members of eliminated al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden’s support network.

“Even, if some people were arrested for collaborating with a foreign intelligence service, that would not be different from the United States of America arresting Jonathan Pollard for spying on behalf of America’s friend Israel. Allies share intelligence. They should not be found conducting espionage on one another,” he wrote in special article, put on the CNN website.

The envoy argued that the Usma-bin-Laden episode is a moment of introspection for both Pakistan and the United States.

In an appearance on ABC channel’s This Week program Sunday morning, the ambassador pointed out that it is unfair to say that bin Laden was allowed to be in Pakistan and made it clear that the al Qaeda chief “just happened to be there.”

“It is now time for all of us to take a deep breath and objectively evaluate the realities of the relationship between America and Pakistan in a way that furthers our shared goals and objectives.”

The ambassador said that al Qaeda is a common enemy for both the US and Pakistan. The arrest of Ayman Al-Zawahiri, he added, is a top priority, and Pakistan will assist the United States in capturing the militant leader.

“The fear that the United States will desert Pakistan once again, as it did at the end of the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan in 1989, is widespread.”

“America asks whether Pakistan is an ally and can be trusted. And of course, the same questions are being asked about the United States in Pakistan.”

Pakistan has paid an enormous price in its fight against extremism and terrorism: 35,000 civilians killed, more Pakistani soldiers lost than all of Nato combined, 2000 police dead, the assassination of our leader Benazir Bhutto and massive losses to our economy in investment, trade and infrastructure, he wrote.

“We appreciate America’s help, but the notion that America has ‘given’ Pakistan $20 billion since 9/11 needs to be seen in context. About $12 billion of this figure is Coalition Support Funds, reimbursements for expenses incurred by Pakistan in counterterrorism operations. They covered the cost of the fuel, ordnance, training and execution of counterterrorist operations.

“The blood, sweat, effort, grit and guts are those of a Pakistan that bears the brunt of the battle against terrorism, a battle clearly in the national security interests of the United States.”