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Pakistan-U.S. relations worsen: British think tank
(Xinhua)
10:23, May 26, 2012
LONDON, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Relations between the United States and Pakistan have taken a turn for the worse and the diplomatic breakthrough over access to Afghanistan for NATO troops has failed to materialize, an expert of a London-based international affairs think tank said on Friday.
The NATO summit in Chicago last weekend saw an unexpected invitation to attend extended to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
Zardari attended, and NATO leaders had high hopes that there would be a breakthrough in negotiations over using the southern supply route into and out of Afghanistan.
The NATO leaders agreed in Chicago to remove combat troops and equipment from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, and the southern supply route, which began at the southern port city of Karachi and ended at southwestern Chamman and northwestern Torkham border, would be their best withdrawal option.
Before the suspension, at least 70 percent of NATO's supplies to Afghanistan and 40 percent of its fuel needs were sent through Pakistan.
Now, supplies must take a much longer and more expensive route from the north, through Russia and other neighboring states.
The southern route was shut to NATO troops and supplies after relations between Pakistan and NATO/the United States worsened in November.
This was in the wake of the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan in a badly-targeted attack by the U.S. air units.
Relations worsened further on Wednesday, when Pakistani authorities announced that a doctor accused of helping the United States find al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan was to be jailed for 33 years.
In May, the U.S. Special Forces launched a unilateral attack on the compound in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad where bin Laden was hiding. Bin Laden was killed, and the attack led to a decline in relations between the United States and Pakistan.
The United States reacted to Wednesday's imprisonment of the doctor by withholding 33 million U.S. dollars in aid each year as a symbolic riposte to Pakistan's action.
And on Friday, the death toll of the U.S. drone strike launched early Thursday morning in Pakistan's northwest tribal area of North Waziristan had risen to 10, reported local Urdu TV channel Dunya.
Despite the repeated calls by the Pakistani government to halt the drone strikes in its territory, the U.S. side has never stopped such attacks in Pakistan's northwest tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
Records kept by Xinhua reveal that up to date, at least 108 people have been killed in such strikes since the beginning of this year.
Dr. Alexis Crow, of the independent strategic institute Chatham House in London, told Xinhua on Friday that the U.S. decision to cut aid by 1 million dollars for each year of the doctor's sentence was "completely indicative and in keeping with the language of the Western engagement with Pakistan since its birth, which is that of punishment and reward."
Dr. Crow said that this was a "very 20th century language," and that for the West, it meant dialogue is trapped in economic and security terms.
"The West either throws money or the military at a problem, and what is needed is a lasting political solution," she said.
Post-2014 when the United States, Britain and other Western powers have completely withdrawn militarily from the region, states like Turkey and Qatar should step forward, said Dr. Crow.
"They have proved themselves capable of conducting political engagement because they have a shared stake in achieving some kind of stability in the region," she said.
The current poor state of relations between the United States/NATO and Pakistan was the latest episode in a recurrent history of diplomatic ups and downs, and for that reason, it was not a sign of a profound change in the relationship, said Dr. Crow.
It will also not deflect NATO from its declared aim of withdrawing its military from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, but it will make it more awkward and more costly.
(Xinhua)
10:23, May 26, 2012
LONDON, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Relations between the United States and Pakistan have taken a turn for the worse and the diplomatic breakthrough over access to Afghanistan for NATO troops has failed to materialize, an expert of a London-based international affairs think tank said on Friday.
The NATO summit in Chicago last weekend saw an unexpected invitation to attend extended to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
Zardari attended, and NATO leaders had high hopes that there would be a breakthrough in negotiations over using the southern supply route into and out of Afghanistan.
The NATO leaders agreed in Chicago to remove combat troops and equipment from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, and the southern supply route, which began at the southern port city of Karachi and ended at southwestern Chamman and northwestern Torkham border, would be their best withdrawal option.
Before the suspension, at least 70 percent of NATO's supplies to Afghanistan and 40 percent of its fuel needs were sent through Pakistan.
Now, supplies must take a much longer and more expensive route from the north, through Russia and other neighboring states.
The southern route was shut to NATO troops and supplies after relations between Pakistan and NATO/the United States worsened in November.
This was in the wake of the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan in a badly-targeted attack by the U.S. air units.
Relations worsened further on Wednesday, when Pakistani authorities announced that a doctor accused of helping the United States find al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan was to be jailed for 33 years.
In May, the U.S. Special Forces launched a unilateral attack on the compound in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad where bin Laden was hiding. Bin Laden was killed, and the attack led to a decline in relations between the United States and Pakistan.
The United States reacted to Wednesday's imprisonment of the doctor by withholding 33 million U.S. dollars in aid each year as a symbolic riposte to Pakistan's action.
And on Friday, the death toll of the U.S. drone strike launched early Thursday morning in Pakistan's northwest tribal area of North Waziristan had risen to 10, reported local Urdu TV channel Dunya.
Despite the repeated calls by the Pakistani government to halt the drone strikes in its territory, the U.S. side has never stopped such attacks in Pakistan's northwest tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
Records kept by Xinhua reveal that up to date, at least 108 people have been killed in such strikes since the beginning of this year.
Dr. Alexis Crow, of the independent strategic institute Chatham House in London, told Xinhua on Friday that the U.S. decision to cut aid by 1 million dollars for each year of the doctor's sentence was "completely indicative and in keeping with the language of the Western engagement with Pakistan since its birth, which is that of punishment and reward."
Dr. Crow said that this was a "very 20th century language," and that for the West, it meant dialogue is trapped in economic and security terms.
"The West either throws money or the military at a problem, and what is needed is a lasting political solution," she said.
Post-2014 when the United States, Britain and other Western powers have completely withdrawn militarily from the region, states like Turkey and Qatar should step forward, said Dr. Crow.
"They have proved themselves capable of conducting political engagement because they have a shared stake in achieving some kind of stability in the region," she said.
The current poor state of relations between the United States/NATO and Pakistan was the latest episode in a recurrent history of diplomatic ups and downs, and for that reason, it was not a sign of a profound change in the relationship, said Dr. Crow.
It will also not deflect NATO from its declared aim of withdrawing its military from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, but it will make it more awkward and more costly.
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