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Source: Pakistan's PM urged Afghans to seek other allies besides U.S. - CNN.com
Source: Pakistan's PM urged Afghans to seek other allies besides U.S.
By Jill Dougherty, CNN Foreign Affairs CorrespondentApril 29, 2011 -- Updated 0118 GMT (0918 HKT)
Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani looks on as he meets with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on July 18, 2010 in Islamabad shortly before the signing of a new trade transit treaty between Pakistan and Afghanistan.STORY HIGHLIGHTS
The meeting was held in April in Kabul
The source says Pakistan's prime minister suggested closer ties to China
Tensions have been high between Washington and Islamabad in recent months
(CNN) -- Pakistan's prime minister urged Afghan government officials to look for other partners to ally with beyond the United States in a meeting earlier this month, and suggested it seek closer ties with China, a source close to the Afghan government told CNN.
But Afghan sources disagree on how strongly the Pakistanis were trying to push their neighbors, and there is no indication from either source CNN spoke to about the Afghan government's receptiveness to the idea.
At the meeting between senior Afghan and Pakistani officials April 16 in Kabul, Afghanistan, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Gilani urged the Afghans to draw closer to Pakistan and to China, disengaging with what he depicted as a weakened United States, according to the source close to the Afghan government.
The meeting was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The source, who did not attend the meeting but has spoken with a number of the officials who were present, said that while the topic was not the only subject discussed in the meeting, Gilani did tell the Afghans that Pakistan can protect them but they need to accelerate the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country.
Gilani, the source said, painted the United States as a declining power, weakened economically, and in debt to China.
"What motivated Islamabad to do this is not clear," this source said, "but the relationship with the U.S. is at an all-time low, (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai is very unhappy with the U.S., and they saw an opportunity make this point."
In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, described the accounts of his prime minister's activities as a "complete fabrication."
"Where are Pakistan and Afghanistan going to go by dumping the United States?" Haqqani said. "The fact of the matter is Afghanistan is a country that needs the Americans to rebuild. Pakistan is a country that needs American assistance."
Haqqani said he is expecting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to visit the region "in the near future." The State Department has not confirmed the trip yet.
"I think that Pakistan, Afghanistan and United States will work together," Haqqani said. "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is committed.... Look to her leadership. We expect her to be in the region. We will be moving forward together, together, and that these stories are going to die as many similar stories died in the past."
A senior source in Afghanistan's presidential palace also told CNN that the meeting did not center on a concerted effort to get Afghanistan to drop its long-term partnership plans with the United States.
"There is no planned effort to try to tell Afghanistan that it has to leave the United States as its ally. We are allies with and we want to be friends with our neighbours," the palace source said.
That source said the Afghan government wants "to make sure no one feels vulnerable by our long-term partnership" with Washington, referring to Pakistan.
"Of course, the Pakistani delegation had negotiations on Afghan bilateral relations to strengthen them and they have their concerns," the palace source added.
In a statement responding to the Wall Street Journal story, the Pakistani government called the assertions in the article "baseless."
"Pakistan fully supports an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned process for peace and reconciliation. This fundamental principle is now widely acknowledged," the statement said. "Pakistan recognizes the key role of the United States in promoting stability, peace and harmony in Afghanistan."
Next month, the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan are holding a tri-lateral meeting in Islamabad, noted the statement from Pakistan.
"The purpose of ongoing engagements with Afghanistan and the United States is to have strategic coherence and clarity," the statement noted.
At the Kabul meeting, the source close to the Afghanistan government said, Gilani read from a prepared text -- something uncommon at such meetings, which usually are more informal. This was an indication, the source said, that the ideas presented had been worked on and were not just off-the-cuff comments. There was nothing "provocative" in the remarks, the source said, but one must read "between the lines."
"It tells more about relations between the U.S. and Pakistan and how they have hit rock-bottom," the source said, than it does about Pakistan-Afghan relations.
Pakistan's generals, who exert enormous influence on the government, the source said, "want to go back to the 1980s."
"They're stuck in a time warp in which they think they can push back at the U.S. and force the U.S. to deal with them in a regional, not just national, context."
The relationship between the United States and Pakistan has been tense in recent months, following the arrest and subsequent release of CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who was charged with killing two Pakistani men in what he said was a robbery attempt in Lahore.
Ties have also been strained over CIA drone strikes at targets in Pakistan, near the Afghan border. Several strikes have claimed the lives of what some Pakistani officials have said were innocent civilians. The United States does not officially acknowledge the CIA's secret drone program that targets al Qaeda militants, but it is the only country operating in the region with the capability to carry out such strikes.
