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| India-Pakistan | ||
| Top Obama aides arrive to push Pakistan over NY plot | ||
| 2010-05-19 | ||
The two officials will also deliver Obama's message to the Pakistani government to do away with its India-centric policies and concentrate more on the war on terror. US National Security Advisor General James Jones and CIA Director Leon Panetta arrived in Islamabad on Tuesday evening to engage in meetings with high-ranking military and civilian leadership today (Wednesday), US embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire confirmed. Calling the visit “pretty routine' and “in the line of duty', the embassy spokesperson said Gen Jones and Panetta would be discussing the progress on recently held strategic dialogue, defence issues, security cooperation and the impact of the failed bombing attempt at New York's Times Square bombing. A Pakistani official seeking anonymity confirmed that top of the agenda of the US delegation would remain the Times Square bombing attempt, however, he said demands to end Islamabad's India-centric approach might also be taken up strongly by the US officials. Recently, the US administration has been emanating mixed signals, including warnings of “severe repercussions', which have befuddled many a strategist in Pakistan in recent weeks. Following the tirades from the Obama administration, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was quoted in the media as saying that the relationship between the two countries stood severed because of the Times Square attempt. Statements by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the US demand of a full scale operation in North Waziristan, ending peace accords with tribes have forced the president, prime minister and the army chief to mull a course of action in the last two weeks.
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| Posted by:Steve White |