Pak-US rift out in open

[Janbaz]

SHAIQ HUSSAIN
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Monday said it would not accept any dictation for military operation in tribal areas while reacting strongly to the message delivered by US Vice President Dick Cheney to President Pervez Musharraf that aid to Islamabad could be cut if it failed to step up efforts against al-Qaeda.
Cheney made a surprise visit to Islamabad on Monday morning to meet President Musharraf and deliver what US media termed an “unusually tough message” from Washington.
Cheney warned the President that the newly Democratic Congress could cut aid to Pakistan unless Pakistani forces become far more aggressive in hunting down Qaeda operatives, according to the US media reports.
A statement issued by Aiwan-e-Sadr confirmed that all is not well between Islamabad and Washington and the US has expressed “apprehensions” about Al-Qaeda activities in Pakistani tribal regions.
“The US Vice President expressed US “apprehensions” to President Musharraf about the regrouping of al-Qaeda in the tribal region of Waziristan and called for concerted efforts in countering the threat,” said the statement.
He also communicated his country’s “serious concerns” about the intelligence on an impending Taliban spring offensive against the allied forces in Afghanistan, according to the statement.
However, he lauded Pakistan’s pivotal role in the war against terrorism vowing that ties between the two key allies should be strengthened.
Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam, later at her weekly press briefing, rejected the reported US threat of cutting assistance to Islamabad and retorted that only Pakistan would decide what course to opt for to counter militancy in the tribal areas and in this regard no ‘dictation’ from the outside would be accepted.
She was responding to a query on reports from Washington suggesting tough times ahead for Pakistan owing to its inability to take concrete measures against the militancy in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
According to Pakistani statement, President Musharraf defended the peace deal in the North Waziristan, which was signed in September, last year. He said it was “the way forward.”
General Musharraf said Pakistani, Afghan, NATO and US forces would have to take joint responsibility of stopping illegal crossings along the 2,500-kilometres long border with Afghanistan, according to the statement.
He said that the political and administrative efforts in the tribal areas would help curb al-Qaeda and Taliban activities and avert any Talibanization in the area, according to statement.
Diplomatic circles here believe that it was a clear manifestation of Pakistan’s unwillingness to end the North Waziristan peace agreement contrary to the repeated US demands in this regard and this could widen the gap between Islamabad and Washington.
According to an official, the US leader pressed President Musharraf for more action in the rugged tribal region of Waziristan to cope effectively with the Taliban spring offensive.
However, the official added that Pakistan believed it had done more than enough in anti-terrorism campaign and any further demands asking for more efforts were unjustified.
President Musharraf told the senior member of Bush administration that Taliban were resurging in Afghanistan and not in Pakistan, said the official.
The President said that Mullah Omar and other top leaders of Taliban were operating within Afghanistan and leading the militia’s resurgence.
He said that Pakistan had taken several steps including setting up of about 1000 check-posts along the Afghan border, which was also being monitored through sophisticated biometric technology.
He said that Pakistan had decided to go for documentation of the people’s movement across the border and fence the frontier at specific points.
The US vice president also discussed with President Musharraf the Washington’s row with Tehran over Iranian nuclear programme and in this regard the outcome of consultative meeting of like-minded Muslim countries’ meeting in Islamabad on Sunday.
“President Musharraf cautioned the US leader against the use of force against Iran to resolve the contentious issue saying it would lead to catastrophic results for regional and global peace and stability,” an official said.

The nation.
http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/feb-2007/27/index1.php