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| India-Pakistan |
| Straight answers to be sought from Holbrooke |
| 2009-03-30 |
| Pakistan will be demanding some straight answers from the US special envoy on Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, when he arrives here on April 5. An inter-agency meeting is being held before his arrival to formulate a unified response to FridayÃs speech on Pakistan and Afghanistan by President Barrack Hussain Obama. Efforts are being made that Holbrooke meets the political and military leadership around one table and not separately and they all come up with a unified response. This is the only way that the US can stop playing one against the other like they have been doing in the past. “What contact group are we talking about? What are the parameters of this group? What shape will the group finally take? How does Obama without even asking Pakistan includes it in such a group? Pakistan was certainly not taken into confidence over this,” are the views of one official. Obama had mentioned that together with the UN, a new contact group for Afghanistan and Pakistan would be set up, which will also include the Nato allies, the Central Asian States, the Gulf nations, Iran, Russia, India and China. “The focus of these countries in the contact group will be on Pakistan. In each meeting, our performance would be scrutinised and we would have to show a good report card. It is easy to see that except for maybe the Gulf nations, none of the others completely agree with the manner PakistanÂ’s military is fighting the militancy and also differ greatly on PakistanÂ’s policy for Afghanistan in the future. Initially, you had only one country breathing down your neck, now you will have 20 or more,î the official added. Others are wondering for how long Pakistan will function as if it is not a sovereign state and has to blindly take dictation from Washington. “There is nothing to stop Pakistan from telling Holbrooke: ‘Thanks, but no thanks.Â’ We need time to mull over these new policies and will be ready for a more detailed response, when Pak-US talks are held in a few months, when Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi will head a joint delegation together with COAS General Parvez Kayani and ISI chief General Pasha,” said another official. In fact, Washington has been making quite a song and dance over the accommodating manner that the Army and the ISI have been executing PakistanÃs war against terror and its Afghan policy to the extent of taping Kayani and PashaÂ’s phone conversation in which they were praising their Taliban proxies. Every state, including the US, has its own proxies to meet its strategic needs, so Pakistan should not be embarrassed of owning up to them in the meeting with Holbrooke. They are now an open secret. Pakistan should show spine and draw red lines and clearly say that this is as far as they can go and no more. In fact, the proxies of the proposed contact group make an interesting reading. In a very shrewd manner, Obama has put full focus of militancy inside PakistanÃs borders, ignoring the fact that the Nato has completely failed in curbing the militancy inside Afghanistan. By saying that Osama bin Laden and Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri are inside Pakistan, the focus of American attention and their firepower will be the tribal belt and not Afghanistan. Also worrisome for Pakistan is the fact that Obama has cleverly made mention of Pakistan and India as two nuclear powers where attention has to be on the fact that they remain at peace with each other. There is no hint that there is an outstanding issue between them that has to be resolved. To be fair to Washington, all is not lost as there were some positive overtures from Obama. First, the Kerry-Lugar and the ROZ bills will go a long way in easing PakistanÂ’s immediate economic constraints while it is a welcome move that unlike the past every dollar and cent will be accounted for. But what is not very welcome is the fact that the Foreign Office failed to come up with a consolidated response after ObamaÂ’s address. For the last six months, one could not see any serious work being done in the Foreign Office to prepare for ObamaÂ’s address, which held absolutely no surprises except maybe the contact group. The News was monitoring the Foreign Office and it appeared that the first to start the welcome process was PakistanÃs mission in Washington, followed by a statement by Prime Minister Yousuf Gilani. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood QureshiÂ’s response of welcome was in fact an interview to Reuters before ObamaÂ’s address. Next the welcome came from Hamid Karzai and minutes after TV screen flashed ZardariÂ’s happiness. The Foreign Office was left rubbing its hands and in a complete state of paralysis. Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, one of PakistanÂ’s finest and outstanding diplomats, failed to take the bull by the horns. Surrounded by senior officials and burning the midnight oil, pondering over each and every word of ObamaÂ’s speech, the ministry was certainly not in the mood to welcome the address. Instead of reaching out to the political leadership and pointing out the high and lows of the speech as far as Pakistan was concerned, and asking for his professional draft to be cleared, the foreign secretary preferred to go with the welcoming flow and said nothing. In fact, drafts had been written and rewritten with hopes high that maybe it would be released on Saturday, the Foreign Office developed cold feet and did not want to appear as the government was not on one page. This was the unkindest cut of all. The foreign secretary needs no permission, say several foreign secretaries, to come out with a detailed response while at the same time not contradicting the leadership. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #4 My thoughts exactly, Steve. This mook lies to himself in the mirror every morning, just for practice. |
| Posted by: mojo 2009-03-30 16:18 |
| #3 Mr. Holbrooke: Why are your oily fingerprints smeared over every. single. foreign. policy. disaster. of the past 25 years? Thank you, America |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2009-03-30 15:52 |
| #2 If the Paks get a straight answer from Holbrooke they'll be the first ... |
| Posted by: Steve White 2009-03-30 14:40 |
| #1 Every state, including the US, has its own proxies to meet its strategic needs, so Pakistan should not be embarrassed of owning up to them in the meeting with Holbrooke. They are now an open secret. Pakistan should show spine and draw red lines and clearly say that this is as far as they can go and no more. In fact, the proxies of the proposed contact group make an interesting reading. |
| Posted by: john frum 2009-03-30 11:38 |