Pakistan/Afghanistan: On Ground Updates
President Obama exerts new pressure against Pakistan, warning U.S. relationship with Pakistan is threatened by their support for Islamist Militant Groups
Thursday, October 07, 2011
.
(Now Afghan President,) Hamid Karzai with U.S. Special Forces
during Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001
during Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001
.
* The Wall Street Journal brings us the following report this mid-Thursday afternoon and it starts off like this… President Barack Obama exerted new pressure against embattled ally Pakistan, warning that the U.S. relationship with Pakistan is threatened by the South Asian nation's support for Islamist militant groups… Offering the most detailed description to date of the administration's view of the complicated relationship, the president credited Pakistan for aiding in the fight against al Qaeda, but also pointed to problems posed by Islamabad's seemingly contradictory behavior toward other extremist factions… In describing the strains at a White House news conference on Thursday, Mr. Obama stated publicly what administration officials previously have said only in privacy or anonymity: that Islamabad and Washington have divergent strategic visions, especially in Afghanistan, leading Pakistan to view Islamist militant groups as useful proxies… To change that, Washington must continue to try to "reorient" Pakistan's world view, Mr. Obama said... "There's no doubt that we're not going to feel comfortable with a long-term strategic relationship with Pakistan if we don't think that they're mindful of our interests as well," Mr. Obama told reporters… There was no immediate Pakistani reaction to Mr. Obama's remarks…
Read the full report at link below...
.
* VOA NEWS has this report up on their website this afternoon and it goes in part like this… This week’s Indo-Afghan agreement includes, among other areas of cooperation, a deepening of security ties, under which Indian military experts will train Afghan security forces… In an effort to reassure Pakistan after signing the deal, Afghan President Hamid Karzai called Pakistan a “twin brother,” while calling India a "great friend."… However, Karzai and senior U.S. officials have stepped up accusations that Pakistan’s intelligence agency played a key role in a string of recent deadly attacks in Afghanistan. Pakistan denies the accusations…
Read the full report at link below…
.
* CBS News has this report… Pakistan's influential army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani said Thursday that his troops had been ordered to respond forcefully to any future incursion in the country's territory from Afghanistan, in the latest indication of growing tensions between the two countries… Kayani's remarks during a speech after a military exercise with troops from Saudi Arabia, in Mangla-a military city in northern Pakistan, will likely raise further concerns for the United States in persuading the two countries to cooperate more closely… Analysts said the slide in "Af-Pak" relations is linked to the tension surrounding Pakistan's ties with the United States after Adm. Mike Mullen, the recently retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, publicly accused Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency of supporting Afghanistan's Haqqani terror network…
Read the rest at link below…
.
………………….
AubreyJ………
.
No comments:
Post a Comment