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                        <title>The Express Tribune</title>
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                        <description>The Express Tribune keeps you up to date with all the latest happenings from Pakistan and across the world!</description>
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			<title>What went wrong at Chicago?</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/388664/what-went-wrong-at-chicago</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/388664/what-went-wrong-at-chicago#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 04 Jun 12 18:51:45 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[shahzad chaudhry]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=388664</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Pakistan, US, got into ‘chicken and egg’ cycle, could not decide which first — audience with Obama or opening routes.]]>
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				<![CDATA[President Asif Ali Zardari’s late invite to Chicago has been a subject of great circumspection in the manner that it was garnered through the good offices of our Turkish brothers. The issue became further complicated by a clear snub when the president was literally refused an audience by Obama, denoting the contradictions that bedevil Pakistan’s policy and a lack of a synchronistic strategy in how to disentangle from a precarious infliction in a self-induced ailment. As if this wasn’t enough, within the same week Pakistan proceeded to award a 33-year prison term to Dr Shakil Afridi, CIA’s route to detecting Osama bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad.

There were varying levels of play preceding Chicago that underlined an emerging consensus which was that Pakistan had been left out in the cold after Salala and now had an opportunity to resurrect itself in the Afghan endgame. The motivations and the implicit interests of various players, however, seemed vastly different. The US, haughty by now, after having to deal with an overly irritating Pakistan, just did not wish to engage Pakistan any more unless the latter could offer a substantial helping hand in American closing the case on Afghanistan. Thus, when Turkey recommended an invitation on the understanding that Pakistan will resume supplies through the suspended Ground Lines of Communications (GLOCs), Nato obliged — not the US. Pakistan was, therefore, technically Nato’s guest, not America’s. Yet both refused to acknowledge the presence of Pakistan’s president.

Many felt that missing out on Bonn after Salala was a mistake; and that Pakistan must, therefore, use the opportunity at Chicago to be seen to play its positive role in resolving Afghanistan. Two, the army emerged willing to move beyond Salala while ostensibly holding on to the need for a fig-leaf apology; it seemed keen to reestablish the ties that would give relevance to Pakistan’s role as Afghanistan neared closure. The government saw in it the possibility of some desperate funding to buoy their revenues so that an election year budget could be made possible — almost $1.1 billion has already been included in next year’s estimates. The president and his men found this an opportunity to establish his position alongside the world’s top leadership with the implicit benefit accruing to the PPP in a nervy election year. The environment had thus been crafted to advantage Pakistan with implied benefits, except that something ‘had to be done’ when in Chicago; mere presence was not enough. This is where the roof caved in on the entire plan.

It seems that the two sides, Pakistan and the rest, got into a typical ‘chicken and egg’ cycle and could not decide which would come first — the audience with Obama or the announcement to open the routes. In this guessing game the moment was lost, and President Zardari fell to his Plan B — the stated position that has held the US-Pakistan relations on hold, perpetuating the ‘hold’ for the foreseeable future. Inaction and paralysis are never known to induce fermentation; the promise of an opportunity at Chicago, hence, lay hopelessly unfulfilled. Similarly, domestic political imperatives in an impending electoral powerplay trumped statesmanship in a nation already devoid of credible leadership.

What held Pakistan back from doing the right thing? The most popular theory, of course, will always be a recalcitrant military that, allegedly, in the first place never wanted the resumption of routes and ties with the US. Such a view also gets instant favour given the typical speculative aspersion that is cast on the army’s role as the arbiter of US-Pakistan relations. One never knows whether the army is keen to get her millions, as is also alleged, or stall the ties because of an anti-American disposition. Or, was it the fear of a political backlash that had the PPP locked in inaction, with the vocal PML-N-led opposition exploiting latent anti-Americanism.

Finally, the constant rant of Musharraf having sold the nation cheap to the Americans has come to haunt the current leadership which as an ‘atonement reflex’ seeks a higher rent for the same services. The transactional in the relationship still rules the roost. Perhaps, by accepting the transactional the relationship can be inured from hopes of misplaced convergences and false strategic essence. Relations go dysfunctional when altruism is used to embellish what is patently base.

Pakistan remains a typical poorly led and a confused nation that is losing its way by the day.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 5th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Chicago’s scorecard</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/385776/chicago%e2%80%99s-scorecard</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/385776/chicago%e2%80%99s-scorecard#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 29 May 12 18:10:41 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[tariq.fatemi]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=385776</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Pakistan, US have lost ingenuity,frozen in mutual recriminations, oblivious to dangers of post-Afghanistan pullout.]]>
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				<![CDATA[With the much-trumpeted Nato Summit in Chicago coming to an end, it is time to tally the scorecard for the major participants. This being an election year, the Summit had a domestic agenda apart from its foreign policy objectives. US President Barack Obama was largely successful in reassuring his unhappy voters that his promise to disengage militarily from Afghanistan was “irreversible”. Earlier, he had secured a major victory, convincing Afghan President Hamid Karzai to agree to their bilateral strategic agreement that will provide the US with the legal framework to retain control over Afghanistan’s many military facilities.

Other Nato countries can also congratulate themselves for getting the alliance’s formal approval for the departure deadline, which was important in quelling growing unrest among large sections of the American populace.

President Karzai, too, has good reasons to feel satisfied. He was not only the summit’s sought after star, but one whose role in the endgame was highlighted. This has given rise to speculation that he may seek exemption from the constitutional ban on a third term, offering his candidacy as the only politician enjoying domestic consensus as well as foreign acceptability.

It was, however, Pakistan which was the lone man out, especially after failing to honour signals from the US, indicating their readiness for the supply routes through Afghanistan to be reopened, which in fact helped Pakistan receive a last-minute invitation. Earlier, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar had acknowledged that notwithstanding her earlier rhetorical flourishes emphasising national honour and dignity, it had now dawned on her that Pakistan could not afford to annoy the Nato! Consequently, President Asif Ali Zardari had to suffer the indignity of Secretary General Rasmussen declining to meet him on the plea of scheduling problems, while President Obama rejected the request for a formal call.

The summit in Chicago did confirm that neither the US nor the Nato are interested in building a democratic state any longer, satisfied instead with what they call “Afghanistan is good enough”. President Obama admitted that there is never going to be a “point when we can say that this is perfect ... it may sometimes be a messy process”, while his National Security Council chief Tom Donilon alluded to the limited nature of US strategy, when confirming that the US now aimed to ensure that al Qaeda and associated groups “cannot have safe havens unimpeded”. With the US goalposts having been lowered, it was no surprise that the summit failed to outline a post-withdrawal political strategy for Afghanistan. Nor did anyone ask as to what happens when the country is threatened by civil war, with the Taliban appearing to have lost interest in the reconciliation process, thanks to the Pentagon’s intransigence. Most likely, Nato will pursue a ‘Fortress Kabul’ strategy, while holding Pakistan responsible for the inevitable mess in that country. Both President Obama and Secretary General Rasmussen made obvious their worries on this score, with the latter pointing out that “there can be no drawdown of troops from Afghanistan without Pakistan’s help”, while President Obama was harsher, remarking: “the US did not want Pakistan to be consumed by its own extremists”.

In retrospect, it would appear that our eagerness to be present in Chicago without having first carried out necessary homework was a mistake. Confusion reigns supreme, with Pakistan claiming that the issue of supply routes lies with parliament, though demanding a much higher fee, prompting Defence Secretary Leon Panetta to reject it as “gouging”. The US says it wants to rebuild relations but instead of resolving issues, it has added to the ‘charge sheet’ against Pakistan, calling Dr Shakil Afridi’s imprisonment “unwarranted”. Both countries appear to have lost their ingenuity and imagination, frozen in mutual recriminations, while oblivious to the looming dangers in post-2014 Afghanistan, with its ill-trained and tribally fractured army incapable of ensuring peace in the country. The consequences of this are likely to be bad for everyone, but primarily so for Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Obama reaffirmed revival of Pak-US relations: White House official</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/383592/obama-reaffirmed-revival-of-pak-us-relations-white-house-official</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/383592/obama-reaffirmed-revival-of-pak-us-relations-white-house-official#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 24 May 12 07:38:53 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[huma.imtiaz]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=383592</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[White House Deputy National Security Advisor says that both US, Pakistan want to see Nato supply routes reopened.]]>
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				<![CDATA[A White House official has said that US President Barack Obama reaffirmed the reset of US-Pakistan relations in a meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari that took place on the sidelines of the Nato Summit that took place on May 20, 21, 2012.

White House Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, in a press conference at the National Press Club, said that both the US and Pakistan want to see the Nato supply routes reopened.

“We are committed to seeing it reopened,” he said that the US has been respectful of the parliamentary review process in Pakistan.

Rhodes said that the brief trilateral meeting between the leaders of US, Pakistan and Afghanistan focused on Afghanistan, and that they wanted Pakistan to be part of the discussion.

He said that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had also made statements earlier on supporting an Afghan-led reconciliation.

When asked if the US would ever apologise over the Salala incident, Rhodes reiterated the US stance that they deeply regret the incident. “We believe there is a basis to move forward.”

He added that there was a need to be in better communication on the border, to ensure an incident like this doesn’t happen again.]]>
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			<title>Chicago summit: Khar defends Pakistan’s participation</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382811/chicago-summit-khar-defends-pakistan%e2%80%99s-participation</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382811/chicago-summit-khar-defends-pakistan%e2%80%99s-participation#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 23 May 12 04:22:08 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[huma.imtiaz]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=382811</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[In an exclusive interview, foreign minister speaks on Afghan war, drone strikes and relations with US.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has described Pakistani delegation’s participation in the recently-concluded Nato summit in Chicago as successful.


“When there is debate about Afghanistan taking place, should Pakistan, a responsible regional player, an important neighbour and a country that has huge stakes in peace and stability in Afghanistan, not participate?” she told The Express Tribune in an exclusive interview.

She claimed that Pakistan had the highest stakes amongst 60 countries participating in the summit.

“The spill-over effect of instability in Afghanistan is instantaneous in Pakistan and if there is stability in Afghanistan, the effect of that too in Pakistan is likely to be instantaneous. I will completely disagree with anyone who says that Pakistan should have not participated in such a forum.”

“We need to engage with the world on what the challenges are and how we can pursue mutual interests with tools and frameworks acceptable to both parties. For that, you need extensive engagement with the rest of the world, and I think Chicago provided an excellent opportunity for that,” Khar said.

“This is the question for Pakistan – what message do we want to give the world? Are we enablers, a facilitator, a responsible country on the road that leads to Afghan stability, or are we a blocker, a disabler to the international efforts towards peace and stability,” she said.

In response to a question, Khar said that no hostile attacks were made on Pakistan during speeches and remarks at the Nato summit. Khar highlighted that during President Karzai’s interview on CNN, he said that they were working in the ‘friendliest of environments’. She added that Prime Minister Gilani will also visit Kabul soon.

US-Pakistan relations

On drones, Khar said that Pakistan’s position was clear – ‘they are unlawful, illegal and counterproductive’.

“What we need to emphasise is how they are counterproductive. Drones are a means to an end, they are there to achieve a certain objective, so if you can achieve those objectives with different tools, which are acceptable to both parties, isn’t that a better option? There is a lot of work that we have done together, and I am fairly optimistic that we can find a way where drones are not required in Pakistan.”

Khar said Pakistan had good dialogue with every major player in the US administration that they met on the sidelines of the summit, including a good meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, over the importance Pakistan’s parliamentary review and its recommendations.

Asked if they had anything to announce for the future, Khar said it was a continued engagement process, and they were in touch on various levels. She added that Pakistan was given the honour of being invited at the conference, and was the only neighbour of Afghanistan that had been invited.

“I think we should take things positively, and not go into conspiracy theory mode that everything is happening against Pakistan,” she added.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 23rd, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Zardari’s Chicago visit reaped humiliation for country: Imran</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382824/zardari%e2%80%99s-chicago-visit-reaped-humiliation-for-country-imran</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382824/zardari%e2%80%99s-chicago-visit-reaped-humiliation-for-country-imran#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 23 May 12 04:13:34 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[qamar.zaman]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=382824</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Obama did not even meet the president formally, laments PTI chief.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The opposition grouping led by Imran Khan is aghast at the humiliation borne by Pakistan during the Nato summit in Chicago where it said the country’s contributions to the war on terror were summarily overlooked. To add insult to injury, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf said, US President Barack Obama had not even condescended to hold a formal meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari.


On Thursday, PTI chief Imran Khan lamented that despite the death of 40,000 Pakistanis and the loss of Rs70 billion in a “strangers’ war”, Pakistan’s sacrifices were still not being given any consideration.

“The US is not ready to accept the sacrifices rendered by Pakistan, loss of over 40,000 lives including 6,000 soldiers, in the so-called war against terrorism,” said the PTI chairman at a press conference.

Imran accused the government of fighting the war just to earn dollars. “The US did not respect resolutions passed by our parliament and now they did not even bother to meet the president. This is not our war so let’s get out of it,” he maintained.

He believes that Pakistan should immediately disassociate itself from the US war on terror and initiate a dialogue with the tribal people. “There should be an immediate ceasefire in the tribal areas because this war has mutilated our tribal culture.”

Commenting on his decision to skip the dinner hosted by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in honour of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he said he did not attend the dinner because it would mean that he is accepting Gilani as the prime minister.

However, he said, “had I gone to attend the dinner I would have gone for Erdogan because he is a well-respected leader of the Islamic world.”

Responding to a question about the long march against Gilani, Imran said that on moral grounds, Gilani was not the premier any longer. He said that PTI will chalk out its future strategy after a decision is taken over his appeal by the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Lt Gen (retd) Ali Kuli Khan Khattak, along with his two brothers, announced that they have joined the PTI during the press conference on Tuesday. He reposed his confidence in Imran’s leadership.

Imran welcomed Khattak with open arms, who had stepped down in protest when then prime minister Nawaz Sharif had approved the appointment of his junior officer, Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf, to four-star rank and chief of army staff.

Govt has failed: Qureshi 

Meanwhile, the party’s vice-chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi joined the anti-government chorus and said that the government has failed to present its case to the international community before the Nato summit in Chicago despite Pakistan’s strategic importance in Nato’s exit from Afghanistan.

Addressing a press conference in Lahore on Tuesday, the former foreign minister said it was most unfortunate that fingers were pointed at Pakistan after the country had sacrificed so much in the war on terror.

“Humiliation faced at the Chicago summit is evidence of the same,” he stated.

He said that the president had to come back from the summit “empty-handed” and the government had failed to protect the country’s national interests.

(WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT IN LAHORE)

Published in The Express Tribune, May 23rd, 2012. ]]>
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			<title>Pakistan’s ‘restraint’ at Chicago</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382627/pakistan%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98restraint%e2%80%99-at-chicago</link>
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			<pubDate>Tue, 22 May 12 20:14:56 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Editorial]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=382627</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Pakistan recoiled to the position that the Nato supply route will reopen only after the US has apologised.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Pakistan has decided not to show its real hand at the Chicago Nato summit and has recoiled to the position taken earlier that the Nato supply route will reopen only after the US has apologised and retreated from its position of using drones inside Pakistani territory. The dramatic scene that some observers (worried about its increasing isolation) had hoped for — of Pakistan returning to the international fold by announcing the reopening — has not taken place.

President Asif Ali Zardari did not make a speech that could have earned him a standing ovation from the 60 heads of state. He was, perhaps, partially looking over his shoulder to Pakistan where the establishment is scared of the reaction that such a ‘capitulation’ will bring in its wake. Contrary to his endlessly supple approach to crises, he made reference to ‘respect’ as a sop to the rough public opinion inside Pakistan. But his real message was packed in what he said next: “The cabinet’s Defence Committee has decided to direct the relevant officials to conclude negotiations for resumption of the Ground Lines of Communication (GLOCS) needed to supply foreign troops in Afghanistan”.

The media back home has focused on the ‘snub’ that President Zardari received from US President Barack Obama for not giving in, ignoring that both presidents were going through a pantomime dictated by domestic politics. When the GLOCS are discussed in the coming days, Pakistan will apply all kinds of formulas to address its real concerns: reformulate the modalities of ‘apology’ and ‘drones’ and get a better deal from the Nato route which may have become a ‘once only’ option to counter the more expensive alternative ‘northern route’ that will isolate Pakistan even more.

No one should ignore that President Zardari also said “the foreign fighters and non-state actors seeking to destabilise Afghanistan and the region, if found on our soil, must be expelled”. He was recalling words used by Pakistan’s parliament while laying down the ground rules for the country’s foreign policy. What is remarkable is that he also explained in his speech why Pakistan was unable to remove the safe havens in North Waziristan which the world has been perceiving as Pakistan military’s plot to cause discomfiture to Nato in Afghanistan: “[Pakistan] would require the support of the international community, both in terms of resources and capacity-building. It will also require measures aimed at the economic well-being of the people of the areas affected by the military action”.

Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was clearly understanding when he said: “We did not anticipate an agreement on the Pakistan transit routes to be reached at this summit. That was not planned”. The summit declaration pointed to future progress on the matter of routes. It said: “The alliance expressed appreciation to Russia and Central Asian governments for allowing supply convoys through their territory while Nato continues to work with Pakistan to reopen the ground lines of communication as soon as possible.”

There are many reasons why Pakistan has been restrained at the Chicago Nato summit about the reopening of the Nato supply route but one powerful reason is the Defence of Pakistan Council (DPC) led by religious leaders and elements known as non-state actors. What is more dangerous is that the political parties opposed to the ruling coalition have lined up behind the DPC and are threatening their own protests, perhaps secretly appreciating the possibility that al Qaeda and the Taliban will oblige by attacking the supply route with suicide bombers.

Pakistan must come out of its internal contradictions perpetuated by terrorism and the compulsion of the national media of presenting a one-sided xenophobic picture for fear of getting their reporters killed. The world is puzzled by the behaviour of the government and military of Pakistan, falsely bitter towards the world and pusillanimous towards the elements that rob the state of its internal sovereignty.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 23rd, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Chicago’s message</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382626/chicago%e2%80%99s-message</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382626/chicago%e2%80%99s-message#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 22 May 12 19:20:40 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[tariq.fatemi]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=382626</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[US, Nato officials made known frustration with Pakistan over Nato supply route, continued support for Haqqani network.]]>
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				<![CDATA[As details of the Nato summit in Chicago still emerge, Nato has agreed to hand over control of Afghanistan to its own security forces by the middle of next year. Though called primarily to discuss the post-2014 strategy for Afghanistan, the Chicago summit spent no less time during its informal sessions discussing Pakistan, whose ties with the US and Nato have been in a free fall since the Salala attack. The summit declaration included Pakistan among the countries having  “an important role in ensuring enduring peace, stability and security in Afghanistan and in facilitating the completion of the transition process”. Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen also made it clear that Nato was “counting on Pakistan’s commitment to support ISAF and Nato efforts in Afghanistan”, while demanding “reopening of the land routes very soon, because we need these”.

While diplomatic niceties protected President Asif Ali Zardari from public criticism, US and Nato officials made known their frustration with Pakistan for failing to act on its promise to reopen the critically-needed Nato supply routes and continuing to support the Haqqani network.

The White House annoyance with Pakistan was also evident from the kind of briefing given to the media, which claimed that President Barack Obama would not receive President Zardari. The two leaders did, however, have a brief chat, which was used by Obama to inform the press that he had emphasised the “need to work through tensions that have arisen”, adding that President Zardari had assured him of “his belief that these issues can be worked through”. But in a thinly veiled warning, President Obama declared that he did “not want to paper over real challenges”, while pointing out that “it was in Pakistan’s interest to see that they were not consumed by extremism in their midst”.

Regarding Afghanistan, President Obama has admittedly lowered American expectations, no longer viewing it as the “war of necessity”. Nor is he willing to buy the argument advocated by his generals that a troop ‘surge’ was likely to turn the tide in Afghanistan, though he was smart enough to let them try out this option earlier. President Obama has no interest in ‘remaking’ Afghanistan but remains deeply concerned about Pakistan. As his National Security Council Chief, Tom Donilon, confirmed prior to the summit, the US “goal is to have an Afghanistan that has a degree of stability such that forces like al Qaeda and associated groups cannot have safe havens unimpeded, which would threaten the region and threaten US and other interests in the world”. In other words, the US will focus, henceforth, on Afghan security and much less on its social sector.

This would not, however, mean any diminution of concern with Pakistan, as confirmed by President Obama in his post-summit comments. In fact, White House sources have confirmed that he has come around to what Bruce Riedel — a counterterrorism adviser and confidant — had warned him about, namely, that it is Pakistan more than Afghanistan that the US should be worried about. Moreover, with US problems likely to worsen in Afghanistan, the refrain to ‘do more’ would surely intensify, along with threats and warnings.

At the summit, President Zardari sought to shield himself behind the parliament’s resolutions but there were no takers for this. The government should have recognised the nation’s inherent limitations and its inability to stand up to US pressure before engaging in rhetorical flourishes that have placed it in a bind. With American patience wearing thin, further dithering and lack of clarity that has at present characterised our policy would be disastrous for the short term as well as long term future. Nato can congratulate itself for having agreed on an ‘irreversible’ path out of a decade-long, unpopular war. Now, it is time for us to opt for similar rational thinking and ‘hard’ decisions on what ails us at home, along with skilful diplomacy to enhance our options.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 23rd, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Nato routes to be reopened on guidelines set by Parliament: Rehman Malik</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382571/nato-routes-to-be-reopened-on-guidelines-set-by-parliament-rehman-malik</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382571/nato-routes-to-be-reopened-on-guidelines-set-by-parliament-rehman-malik#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 22 May 12 17:50:52 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[Says decision on opening of Nato supply route would be endorsed by the nation.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Federal Minister for Interior Rehman Malik on Tuesday said that President Asif Ali Zardari has successfully and wisely highlighted Pakistan's stance in Nato's Chicago summit.     

Talking to journalists while on a visit to the National Press Club, Malik said there was an impression that President Zardari would announce opening of NATO supply route during the summit, but instead he discussed national interests, integrity and sovereignty of Pakistan and the nation’s sentiments.

"I pay tribute to President Zardari for the way he presented Pakistan’s case in the Chicago Conference," he said.

The minister said that the Parliament had given guidelines regarding the opening of NATO supply route and that a decision in that regard would be taken keeping in view national interests.

Pakistan had halted NATO supplies passing through its territory following a decision by the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) after an incursion of NATO and ISAF troops in its territory on November 26, 2011 in which 24 soldiers were killed.

Malik said talks were underway vis a vis opening of NATO supply route, however the final decision would be in line with the roadmap and guidelines given by the Parliament.

Responding to a question, he said, "Besides the US, the NATO has other members as well and we should also keep in mind that Pakistan is part of the international community, so we need to take a decision keeping our mind open and after thorough consideration."

He said a decision based on the the recommendations of the parliamentary committee would not only be long lasting but will also be endorsed by the people of Pakistan.

NAB inquiry against Sharif brothers

Talking about referring Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Public Accounts Committee for being involved in corruption, he said, "I do not have a personal grudge or enmity with anyone. I just want that the Sharif brothers should bring back plundered money to Pakistan. Whatever I am doing is according to law and as per the book."

Malik had claimed on April 28, 2012, that he had documentary evidence of corruption against the PML-N leadership and would refer them to NAB.

The federal government is the complainant in this reference, which also includes cases related to defaulting on loans worth Rs4.9 billion taken from nine different banks in the early 90s.

Electronic voters lists

When asked to comment on the preparation of electronic electoral voters lists by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), he said the concerned authority was working round the clock in collaboration with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to achieve the task at the earliest.

He said he would soon inaugurate an innovative Smart Card, to be issued by the NADRA.

Karachi violence

Talking about the situation in Karachi, he said targeted action was being taken against target killers, terrorists and extortionists, who were disrupting the peace in the commercial hub of the country. Malik said he was personally monitoring the operation.

Mr Books Store owner recovered 

Malik also mentioned about the recovery of a book store owner in Islamabad, who was kidnapped a few days ago, saying the owner of Mr Books Store had been recovered by the police. He announced commendation certificates for the police officials, who took part in the operation against the kidnappers.]]>
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			<title>Zardari’s Chicago visit brought nothing but disgrace: Imran Khan</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382541/zardari%e2%80%99s-chicago-visit-brought-nothing-but-disgrace-imran-khan</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382541/zardari%e2%80%99s-chicago-visit-brought-nothing-but-disgrace-imran-khan#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 22 May 12 15:17:47 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[web.desk]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[PTI chairman says Pakistan is fighting a 'strangers' war' for the sake of dollars.]]>
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				<![CDATA[President Asif Ali Zardari’s visit to Chicago to attend the Nato summit brought nothing but disgrace to the country, stated Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday.

Speaking to a press conference, Khan said that despite the death of 40,000 Pakistanis and the loss of Rs70 billion in a “strangers’ war”, Pakistan’s sacrifices are still not being given any consideration.

He further questioned that why the resentment being faced by 48 countries was not being kept in mind while discussing the reopening of Nato supply routes in the parliament. “This whole war is being done for the sake of dollars.”

“[Former ambassador to US] Husain Haqqani wrote a book against the Pakistani Army and received $100,000 from the American think-tank,” Khan claimed.

The party chief added that the PTI is not against the army, rather it wants to save it as the army should not have any role in politics.

He said that the PTI will announce its agenda regarding the Nato supply routes during a rally in Rawalpindi on May 27, stated a press release.

New PTI inductee

General (retd) Ali Kuli Khan, along with his two brothers, announced that they have joined PTI during the press conference on Tuesday. He reposed his confidence in the leadership of Imran Khan.

Khan also welcomed them to the party.

The press conference was attended by Ahsan Rasheed, Colonel (retd) Younis Ali, Amir Mehmood Kiyani, Dr Israr Shah, Ahmad Jawad and Zahid Hussain Kazmi.]]>
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			<title>NATO Summit: It was a very, very successful visit, says Khar</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382469/nato-summit-it-was-a-very-very-successful-visit-says-khar</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382469/nato-summit-it-was-a-very-very-successful-visit-says-khar#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 22 May 12 06:00:51 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[huma.imtiaz]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Khar said that no hostile attacks were made on Pakistan during speeches and remarks at the summit.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Despite the bad press that has dogged the Pakistani delegation during their trip, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar appeared upbeat and sounded positive about the outcome of the attendance of the Pakistani delegation, headed by President Asif Zardari, at the Nato Summit in Chicago.

Speaking to Express News, Khar said, “When there’s a debate about Afghanistan taking place, in your opinion, should a country like Pakistan, which is a responsible regional player, an important neighbour, and a country that has huge stakes in peace and stability in Afghanistan, not participate?”

Khar said that Pakistan had the highest stakes among the 60 countries that participated in the summit. “The spillover effect of instability in Afghanistan is instantaneous in Pakistan, and if there is stability in Afghanistan, the effect of that in Pakistan too should be instantaneous. I will completely disagree with anyone at all who says that Pakistan should not participate in such a forum.”

She added that Pakistan was an important neighbour of Afghanistan and a responsible regional player.

Khar also took umbrage to how the Nato summit was debated in Pakistan. “The US side, the Nato secretary general and the government said that this was an unconditional invite.”

However, she added, that there was a debate on whether this was conditional, and when we would make an announcement about the re-opening of the Ground Lines of Communication (GLOCs).

“We have proven that we are going to conduct foreign policy in a very transparent manner and that should give people confidence and that we are trying to move forward in a transparent manner.”

“What we need to do is engage with the world, in giving our perspective on what the reality checks are and what the challenges are. For that you need extensive engagement with the rest of the world, and I think Chicago provided an excellent opportunity for that.”

“This is the question for Pakistan – what message do we want to give the world? Are we an enabler, a facilitator, a responsible country on the road that leads to Afghan stability, or do we want to give the message that we are a blocker, a disabler, to the international efforts towards peace and stability. We want to give a very strong message that the Afghan people’s future is important to us, that we would like to enable peace and stability in Afghanistan to the best of our abilities, and we have been doing that at great cost to Pakistan,” she said.

Responding to a question, Khar said that no hostile attacks were made on Pakistan during speeches and remarks at the Nato summit.

On the matter of the GLOCs, Khar said that the Nato partners attach a great deal of importance to the supply routes and “they will, because it makes a difference to them. That’s why we have said this in Pakistan as well, the narrative needs to go into a positive zone [in Pakistan], that the issue of Nato supply routes is not about US-Pakistan relations, it affects relations with 50 odd countries that are part of Nato and are partners.”

Khar highlighted that during Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s interview on CNN, he said that they were working in the “friendliest of environments” that have been possible. She added that Prime Minister Gilani would also be visiting Kabul soon.

US-Pakistan relations

Speaking about relations between the US and Pakistan, Khar said, “We are engaging with them on all issues, nothing is off the table, so we have to move on each of the issues. We have started a useful engagement process, and want to achieve good results for good US-Pakistan bilateral relations, Pakistan’s relations with Nato countries and its relations with Afghanistan.”

On the issue of US-operated drone operation in Pakistan, Khar said that Pakistan’s position remains clear, that they [drones] are “unlawful, illegal and counterproductive”.

“What we need to emphasise even more is how they are counterproductive. Drones are a means to an end, they are there to achieve a certain objective, so if you can achieve those objectives with different tools, which are acceptable to you and me, isn’t that a better tool? So we are trying to look for tools that are mutually acceptable. There is a lot of work that we have done together, and I am fairly optimistic that we can formulate a roadmap to lead to a way where drones are not required in Pakistan.”

Khar said that they had good dialogues with every major player in the US administration that they met on the sidelines of the Nato Summit, and that they has a productive meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

She added that they emphasised the importance of the parliamentary review and were moving forward on the basis of its recommendations.

Khar said that engagement with the US would continue on many levels in Washington and Islamabad. “I’m a bit assured by the fact that I see a commitment on both sides to make it work. I am more confident than I was before that we can make it work.”

The foreign minister said that they were not compromising on Pakistan’s national interests, and unlike what happened in the past, when they would reach a decision, it would be made public.

When asked if it was a mistake by Pakistan to not attend the Bonn conference on Afghanistan in December 2011, after the Salala incident, Khar said, “I will never as a foreign minister choose to disassociate myself with any international discussion. However, at that time Salala was a great national tragedy, and in many ways it was crossing multiple red lines in Pakistan-US relationship.”

She said that Pakistan's sovereignty must be respected, and there was a consensus that not attending the Bonn conference was a way to send that message to the world.

“I think it was the need of the hour. But that was the need of the hour then, its always an evolving situation.” She said that Pakistan wanted to a closure on the episode and that an apology would help in achieving it.

When asked if they had anything to announce for the future, Khar said that it was a continued engagement process, and that they were in touch on various levels. She added that Pakistan was given the honour of being invited at the conference, and was the only neighbour of Afghanistan that had been invited.

“I think we should take things positively, and not go into conspiracy theory mode thinking that everything is happening against Pakistan, we have to make it ourselves; our first responsibility is to ourselves, and to protect our national interest and then pursue a track that protects it.”]]>
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			<title>Salala air raid: Zardari insists on parliament’s guidelines</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382344/salala-air-raid-zardari-insists-on-parliament%e2%80%99s-guidelines</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382344/salala-air-raid-zardari-insists-on-parliament%e2%80%99s-guidelines#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 22 May 12 04:30:15 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[Clarifies that the present trust deficit in relations needs to be bridged.]]>
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				<![CDATA[President Asif Ali Zardari held bilateral talks with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Chicago on Sunday, wherein he asked the US to help Pakistan reach a closure on the Salala episode “by following the path laid down by the country’s parliament.”


According to a press release, the president reminded the US secretary of state that Pakistan “wanted to find a permanent solution regarding drone strikes since these not only violated Pakistan’s sovereignty but also inflamed the public’s sentiments due to civilian casualties.”

The president also made it clear that Pakistan ‘still felt aggrieved over the Salala incident.’

The issue of Coalition Support Fund (CSF) payments was also discussed.

On the other hand, Secretary Clinton said that the US considers Pakistan an important ally in the war against terror and a partner in the efforts to promote regional peace.

The press release quoted Clinton as saying that the “US wants to engage Pakistan and it respects the parliamentary review of the country.” “It intends to move forward in its relationship with the people of Pakistan,” it added.

However, it was still not clear on what terms did the US intend to move forward in its relationship with Pakistan.

President Zardari also asked Secretary Clinton to help his country gain access to US markets and help Pakistan in “overcoming present challenges including the energy crisis.“

Regarding the Afghan endgame, the president asserted that “a genuine reconciliation process in the country which is Afghan-led and Afghan-owned remained the only viable solution to ending the conflict.”

“A trust deficit still remained between Pakistan and the US, on the other hand, and that implies that the goal of establishing a long-term, sustained and durable bilateral equation remains elusive,” he added.

“Bridging this trust deficit is a must for Pakistan in order to reinvigorate the counter-terrorism cooperation with the international community,” he said.

At the same time, it was emphasised that “the public ownership of the efforts against terrorism must not be allowed to get weakened through incidents like Salala or the loss of civilian lives as a result of drone attacks.”

The president also highlighted the need “to evolve a mechanism on evolving cooperation on counter terrorism as outlined by country’s parliament.”

“Both sides must consider designing a framework to find a mutually acceptable alternative,” he asserted.

The meeting was attended by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani, Ambassadors Cameron Munter, Marc Grossman and Sherry Rehman and Senator Farhatullah Babar, along with other officials.

A senior State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the two leaders “discussed the importance of reopening Nato supply lines; taking a joint action against elements which threatened Pakistan, the United States and the region including al Qaeda and the Haqqani network; of supporting Afghanistan’s security, stability and efforts towards reaching a reconciliation in addition to negotiating for a US-Pakistan Bilateral Investment Treaty.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22nd, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Pak-Us Ties: Obama refuses to paper over differences</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382391/pak-us-ties-obama-refuses-to-paper-over-differences</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382391/pak-us-ties-obama-refuses-to-paper-over-differences#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 22 May 12 03:32:10 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[Ddemocratic, stable Pakistan, in favour of US, says Obama.]]>
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				<![CDATA[US President Barack Obama says that he emphasised to President Asif Zardari that Pakistan has to be part of the solution in Afghanistan.


In a press conference at the Nato summit in Chicago, the US leader said that his discussion with President Zardari was very brief.

“It is in our interest to see a Pakistan that is democratic and stable,” he said, “We need to work through tensions that have risen. President Zardari shared with me his belief that these issues can be worked through.”

He said that they had not been expecting the Nato supply routes issue to be worked through during the summit. “We are making diligent progress on reopening of supply routes.”

He said neither Afghanistan nor Pakistan would have stability unless they could resolve their outstanding issues. “I don’t want to paper over real challenges,” the US president said, adding that there had been tensions between Pakistan and the US and Pakistan and Isaf over the past several months.

“Ultimately it is in our interest to see a stable Pakistan,” he said, adding that it was in Pakistan’s interest to see that they were not consumed by extremism in its midst.


Published in The Express Tribune, May 22nd, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Chicago declaration: In the face of pressure, Pakistan offers no quarter</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382376/chicago-declaration-in-the-face-of-pressure-pakistan-offers-no-quarter</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382376/chicago-declaration-in-the-face-of-pressure-pakistan-offers-no-quarter#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 22 May 12 00:01:10 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[M Ziauddin]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Nato urges reopening of supply routes into Afghanistan ‘as soon as possible’.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Despite intense pressure and Nato’s public call for reopening supply routes through Pakistan in a summit declaration, President Asif Ali Zardari made no promises in Chicago.


In a short speech on Monday to leaders from countries in the Nato-led force in Afghanistan, President Zardari gave no indication that Islamabad would be reopening vital Nato supply routes anytime soon without the preconditions Pakistan’s Parliament had put in place.

He told the gathering of more than 50 nations that “Pakistan believed in partnerships based on trust and respect. Partnerships that will secure the future of our people.”

The president, however, did address the pressing matter of the reopening of Nato supply routes, saying Islamabad had ordered negotiators to conclude a deal with the United States.

Zardari said the cabinet’s Defence Committee “decided to direct the relevant officials to conclude negotiations for resumption of the Ground Lines of Communication” needed to supply foreign troops in Afghanistan.

In his address, Zardari called the botched air raid “a serious setback” that “required that we review our engagement and cooperation.”

The parliament “has spoken in favour of cooperation and a partnership approach,” he said, adding that Pakistan was bound by the advice of parliament and the democratic forces.

“Our parliament has also recommended that foreign fighters and non-state actors seeking to destabilize Afghanistan and the region, if found on our soil, must be expelled. We are devising a comprehensive plan for this purpose. This would require the support of the international community both in terms of resources and capacity building. It will also require measures aimed at the economic well-being of the people of the areas affected by the military action,” he added.

Afghan reconciliation 

The president said Pakistan’s destiny was inter-linked with Afghanistan while expressing support of all efforts for peace and reconciliation in the war-torn country.

“We firmly believe that only an inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue can lead to sustainable peace in Afghanistan,” he said.

US-Pakistan bilateral talks

Earlier, Pakistan and the US ended their Chicago consultations on the side-lines of the Nato summit, “agreeing to disagree” on almost all their mutually contentious issues but seemingly pushed by their respective national interests to continue talking to seek ways to bridge the trust deficit which refuses to disappear.

Even the quick handshake between President Obama and President Zardari before the start of the consultations among participants of the summit this morning appeared to have failed to break the ice. However, unconfirmed reports claim that the two presidents met for short while after the handshake but details of what transpired between the two were not readily available.

Briefing by secretary general

At the end of the final day of the summit, the Nato Secretary General while briefing the media said that it was in Pakistan’s interest to have a stable Afghanistan and voiced optimism that Pakistan would reopen a vital supply route for foreign troops in Afghanistan despite failing to reach a deal at a summit in Chicago.

“We did not anticipate an agreement on the Pakistan transit routes to be reached at this summit. That was not planned,” Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters.

But he added: “I express some optimism as regards the possibility to see the reopening of transit routes in the very near future.”

The secretary general went on to add that President Asif Ali Zardari was invited “because we wanted to engage with Pakistan. We need to have a positive engagement with Pakistan. I met President Zardari, I was encouraged by his statements.”

NATO declaration

The Western alliance agreed to hand control of Afghanistan over to its own security forces by the middle of next year, putting the Western alliance on an ‘irreversible’ path out of an unpopular, decade-long war.

In a declaration at a summit in Chicago, the alliance expressed appreciation to Russia and Central Asian governments for allowing supply convoys through their territory in what seemed to be a cautionary statement directed towards Pakistan and said “Nato continues to work with Pakistan to reopen the ground lines of communication as soon as possible.”

“The countries in the region, particularly Pakistan, have important roles in ensuring enduring peace, stability and security in Afghanistan and in facilitating the completion of the transition process,” the declaration said.

Pressure on Pakistan

The seemingly intense pressure being put on Pakistan was reflected in the Monday edition of The Wall Street Journal, which said that US tensions with Pakistan complicated the opening day of the Nato summit as the US had failed so far to reach a deal with Pakistan to reopen key supply routes into Afghanistan.

“Zardari was invited to attend the two-day summit at the last minute in hopes that would lead to a deal, but the two sides remain at odds over how much the US and its allies should pay Pakistan per container,” it further said.

It seems the bottom line was dollars at the summit for both the Western alliance and Pakistan as the former is seeking substantial contributions from its recession-battered members, amounting a total of $4.1 billion, to finance its withdrawal and support the peace aftermath, while the latter is suffering from one of its worst economic squeezes in history and is looking forward to cashing in on the Afghan withdrawal concerns by proposing that the transit fees per container be raised to as much as $5,000 from the current $250, a demand that Washington and its allies have rejected as excessive.

The refusal of President Obama to have an official one-on-meeting with President Zardari is being used as pressure meant to make the latter “feel uncomfortable,” the WSJ said, quoting an unnamed senior US official.

The Chicago Tribune on Monday said that the two-day summit, the largest in the military alliance’s 63 year history, came as White House officials made clear they were furious at Pakistan’s continued refusal to reopen ground routes used to move fuel and other war supplies into Afghanistan, a six month standoff the White House had hoped to resolve before the summit.

Pakistan’s version

Pakistanis on their part led by President Zardari appeared to be putting up a brave face in the face of intense pressure as they publicly stuck to their stand that both a US apology and cessation of drone strikes were not off the table as far as they were concerned and that they would not settle for anything less than what they are demanding as a transit supply fee.

The unflappable presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar and a media savvy Ambassador Sherry Rehman effortlessly kept their cool while fielding some very searching questions from a group of Pakistani media representatives at their late evening briefing on President Zardari’s engagements.

Their brave faces indicated that either Pakistan had not realised the gravity of the situation or they had come prepared not to sign on the dotted lines, come what may, and therefore were ready face the consequences.

Or perhaps both US and Pakistan are deliberately sending well orchestrated signals for the benefit of their respective parties while having already reached some kind of accord on major issues to be made public at a mutually agreed time. As both the Democrats in the US and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) enter election mode, they may be seeking to extract the maximum political advantage– or minimum political damage – from this deal.

Babar said the two sides while agreeing to disagree on their contentious issues sought to continue talks to bridge the trust deficit, which he thought was a positive aspect of the meeting between Zardari and Clinton.

“We searched for convergences and tried to reduce the points of divergences. We dispelled the misperception regarding the alleged links with Pakistani militants … The Secretary of state was informed that the US has not paid a single penny under CSF head since July 2010. President Zardari reiterated that Pakistan needed trade rather than aid, stoppage of drone attacks, and would like speedy implementation of reconstruction opportunity zones.”

US president’s speech 

Meanwhile, in his opening remarks on the final day of the summit the US President welcomed Nato allies and partners that make up the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan and particularly mentioned the presence of Afghan President Karzai, as well as officials from central Asia and Russia: “nations that have an important perspective and that continue to provide critical transit for Isaf supplies.” He did not name Pakistan even once in his speech.

US President Barack Obama and his 27 military allies also ordered military officers to begin planning a post-2014 mission to focus on training, advising and assisting Afghan troops and special forces.

“As Afghans stand up, they will not stand alone,” Obama said.

Meanwhile, in a sign of growing impatience within the alliance, new French President Francois Hollande refused to back down from his decision to pull troops out in 2012, a year earlier than planned.


(Read: Chicago hiccups)

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22nd, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Pakistan, US making 'diligent progress' on supply route despite tensions: Obama</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382375/pakistan-us-making-diligent-progress-despite-tensions-obama</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382375/pakistan-us-making-diligent-progress-despite-tensions-obama#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 21 May 12 21:27:31 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Nato formally agrees to Afghan transition plan despite questions over future. Fears over al Qaeda spreading.]]>
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				<![CDATA[US President Barack Obama emphasised to President Zardari that his government has to be part of the solution in Afghanistan, but that both America and Pakistan need to work through the tensions .

In a press conference at the NATO Summit in Chicago before it wound up, the US President did not mention Pakistan even once during his speech. And when he did choose to speak about Pakistan, it was following a direct question. He said that his discussion with President Zardari was very brief.

"It is in our interest to see a Pakistan that is democratic and stable," he said, "We need to work through some of the tensions that have inevitably arisen after 10 years of our military presence in that region. President Zardari shared with me his belief that these issues can be worked through."

He added that the US and Pakistan shared a common enemy.

Obama said that they were not expecting the reopening of NATO Ground Lines of Communications (GLOCs) during the course of the summit. However, he maintained that they had made "diligent progress on reopening of supply routes."

He said neither Afghanistan nor Pakistan would have stability unless they could resolve their outstanding issues. "I don't want to paper over real challenges," said the US President, adding that there had been tensions between Pakistan and the US and Pakistan and ISAF over the past several months. "Ultimately it is in our interest to see a stable Pakistan", adding that it was in Pakistan's interest to see that they were not consumed by extremism in its midst.

He was quick to remind that there existed real challenges with Pakistan.

Nato agrees Afghan transition

Nato leaders sealed a landmark agreement on Monday to hand control of Afghanistan over to its own security forces by the middle of next year, putting the Western alliance on an "irreversible" path out of a deeply unpo pular, decade-long war.

The summit in Chicago formally committed to a US-backed strategy that calls for a gradual exit of foreign combat troops by the end of 2014 but left major questions unanswered about how to prevent a slide into chaos and a Taliban resurgence after the allies are gone.

"After two years there will be a stable Afghanistan, but not perfect," Obama said.

President Barack Obama acknowledged NATO's plan was fraught with risk even as he touted it as a sound approach. The two-day meeting of the 28-nation bloc marked a milestone in a war sparked by the September 11 attacks that has spanned three US presidential terms and even outlasted al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Obama and NATO partners sought to show their war-weary voters the end is in sight in Afghanistan - a conflict that has strained Western budgets as well as patience - while at the same time trying to reassure Afghans that they will not be abandoned.

Alliance leaders acquiesced to new French President Francois Hollande's insistence on sticking to his campaign pledge to withdraw French troops by December 31, 20120, two years ahead of NATO's timetable. While there was no sign this would send other allies rushing for the exits, leaders could face pressures at home.

"We are now unified behind a plan to responsibly wind down the war in Afghanistan," Obama told the summit's closing news conference.

The summit's final communique ratified plans for the NATO-led army to hand over command of all combat missions to Afghan forces by the middle of 2013 and for the complete withdrawal of 130,000 foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.

The statement deemed it an "irreversible" transition to full security responsibility for fledgling Afghan troops, and said NATO's mission in 2014 would shift to a training and advisory role. "This will not be a combat mission," it said.

Doubts remain, however, whether Afghan forces will have the capability to stand up against a still-potent Taliban insurgency that Western forces have failed to defeat in nearly 11 years of

fighting.

"Are there risks involved?" Absolutely," Obama conceded to reporters, saying that while the Taliban no longer had a foothold in Afghanistan, they remained a "robust enemy" and that NATO's gains on the ground were still fragile.

While Obama insisted Afghanistan should never again be used to plot attacks on other nations, a senior British official said: "It is unrealistic to assume that Afghanistan is going to be completely secure and there is no possibility of a terrorist threat re-emerging."

With Europe's debt crisis hanging over the summit and many member-governments limited by austerity budgets, Obama also struggled to pin down final commitments from allies for the $4.1 billion a year needed to support Afghan security forces.

The funding - which will undergird Afghan's capacity to fight the Taliban and is considered vital to a smooth NATO departure - was not expected to be fully realized at the summit, but alliance officials believe it will eventually be provided.

Al Qaeda in Yemen a concern

Obama said Monday the United States was very concerned about Al-Qaeda's operations in Yemen, after almost 100 soldiers were massacred in a massive suicide bombing.

"We are very concerned about al Qaeda and extremist activity in Yemen," he told reporters, adding the US was working with the Yemeni government to identify leaders of the terror group in the Arabian peninsula country.

Obama said there was no doubt that Yemen's poverty and instability attracted extremists, and added that Washington, which has used drones to take out leaders of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), had a robust counter-terror operation there.

"We're going to continue to work with the Yemeni government to try to identify AQAP leadership and operations and try to thwart them," Obama said at a press conference wrapping up the NATO summit in Chicago.

"That's important for US safety, it's also important for the stability of Yemen and for the region."

In the attack in Yemen, a soldier detonated explosives under his uniform in the middle of a battalion, killing 96 troops and wounding about 300, in a massive blast witnesses said echoed loudly across Sanaa, causing panic among residents.

Yemen-based AQAP, claimed responsibility for the attack which it said targeted "the defense minister and other leaders of the US war on our people in Abyan" province in the south.]]>
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			<title>Chicago hiccups</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382132/chicago-hiccups</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382132/chicago-hiccups#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 21 May 12 19:38:57 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Editorial]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=382132</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The message to Pakistan is clear: either open the Nato supply routes immediately or prepare to face the consequences.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[As one would have expected, the Nato summit in Chicago seems to have run into quite a few hiccups, especially as far as Pakistan and America are concerned. Their bilateral relationship has, of late, been clouded by the Nato supply routes closure issue and it seems that leaving it unresolved was perhaps not such a good idea for Islamabad. President Asif Ali Zardari met US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the body language that could be seen in the photographs of the meeting was one that showed the Pakistani side playing on a relatively weak wicket. The message sent to Pakistan is clear: either open the Nato supply routes immediately or prepare to face the consequences. More than a billion dollars in coalition support fund rest on our playing ball with the US, while reopening the supply routes will allow us to earn around one million dollars a day in tolls and fees.

For now, the main sticking point appears to be an apology for the Salala attacks. At this point, Pakistan should try and understand that it is unlikely to receive any apology. This is a presidential year in the US and Obama has already been slammed by his opponent Mitt Romney for always apologising for America. An apology for Salala will only make Obama seem weaker and unfortunately Pakistan will have to bear the brunt of this reality. The other outstanding issue is drone attacks. The Parliamentary Committee on National Security demanded an end to drone attacks as a precondition for reopening Nato supply routes. This, too, is an exercise in futility, not least because several drone strikes have taken place in recent weeks following the committee declaring its demands. Drones, America says, are a key feature of its war on the militants, and are feared as such by the latter. So perhaps, what Pakistan can demand is joint ownership or a joint monitoring mechanism. Besides, had we not allowed the sanctuaries to exist in parts of Fata and had shown the will to take them out, perhaps we wouldn’t have had to deal with the drones issue in the first place. We should realise that time is running out and that the rest of the world will move on, without us if it needs to. The endgame in Afghanistan has already been set into motion and Pakistan will find itself cut off and isolated should it not be open to compromise.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22nd, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Beyond Chicago</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382141/beyond-chicago</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382141/beyond-chicago#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 21 May 12 19:13:31 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[talat.masood]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=382141</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[From now till end of 2014, is a narrow window to work with Nato, US, develop strategy, protect our national interests.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The summit in Chicago is primarily meant to focus on issues related to Nato matters. It is expected to provide President Barack Obama an opportunity to show his people how he has handled relations with allies. With the US and Nato forces drawdown in Afghanistan planned for 2014, Pakistani presence at the conference became relevant as Afghanistan’s security and stability have a direct bearing on the former’s security.

But several questions come to mind as Nato and US forces withdraw. What is the likely scenario that will emerge once Nato and the US withdraw? Can the Afghan forces hold up to the Taliban onslaught and are there any chances of a negotiated settlement? What role, if any, should Pakistan play to facilitate an orderly withdrawal?

The prognosis is that once the US forces leave, Afghanistan could lapse into civil strife because though the Afghan National Army has come a long way, it has yet to gel into an effective national force to counter the Taliban and warlords opposed to the government. Moreover, President Hamid Karzai’s government has not been able to win the confidence of the people due to pervasive corruption, poor governance and failing security. Capitalising on these weaknesses, Afghan Taliban enjoy local support, at least, in the eastern and southern parts of the country.

Pakistan faces a huge dilemma. Immediately after 9/11, president George W Bush addressed Pakistan in his famous remarks “either you are with us or against us”. General Pervez Musharraf took no time to be on the side of the US and to become a frontline state. For if we had not allied ourselves with the US and Nato, India would have played the key role in Afghanistan and extended maximum facilities for transit and enhanced its regional influence. Paradoxically, since then, Pakistan has been an ally of the US but also sided with forces against the US.

On the one hand, it supports the US in its policies in Afghanistan, but it can also not ignore the Taliban with whom it has maintained functional, if not friendly, relations. Further, Washington itself has been engaging the Taliban leadership, albeit not with much success. These conflicting demands make Pakistan — in the eyes of the US and Nato countries — an unreliable partner and part of the problem rather than the solution.

The irony is that the military leadership now realises the inherent dangers for Pakistan in an allout victory of the Taliban in Afghanistan. It will inspire the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to intensify their insurgency and it is also possible that the Afghan Taliban may turn their sights on Pakistan — the strategic depth in reverse.

The question, then, is, how are Pakistan’s interests best served in this complex situation? The ideal approach would be to leave it to the Afghans to decide in an ‘Afghan-led, Afghan-owned process’, but that does not seem feasible in the current scenario. Islamabad finds itself trapped and is unable to navigate the political and diplomatic conundrum. The period from now until the end of 2014, however, provides a narrow window of opportunity to work with Nato and the US to develop a shared strategy that protects our national interests.

But a major impediment lies in taking this course. If India remains the main enemy in Pakistan’s security paradigm, Islamabad will continue the policy of co-opting militants, including the Afghan Taliban. By pursuing the same old policy of looking at every security problem through the Indian prism — while facing declining resources, internal turmoil and international isolation — it will result in increased reliance of Pakistan on militant proxies.

We are at the cusp of a situation where the moment of truth has arrived. This moment requires that we decide how the interests of our country can best be served. The militants with their pseudo religious-militaristic ideology and resources, generated through illegal means, continue to gain strength while the state is weakening. Any further indecisiveness on the government’s part and military leadership on how to deal with the Afghan, the TTP and other militant groups will only worsen the present situation.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22nd, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Zardari pushes Parliament's 'partnerships of trust, respect' path for Afghanistan</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382095/zardari-pushes-parliaments-partnerships-of-trust-respect-path-for-afghanistan</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382095/zardari-pushes-parliaments-partnerships-of-trust-respect-path-for-afghanistan#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 21 May 12 18:20:04 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[huma.imtiaz]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=382095</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Reaffirms Pakistan's committment to peaceful transition of power in Afghanistan at Nato summit.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[With the fate of Afghanistan and Pakistan inextricably linked, President Asif Ali Zardari, stressed a partnership based approach as the way forward, while addressing the Nato summit in Chicago on Monday.

With Nato, and US President Barack Obama reaffirming their support to Afghanistan, that they would not abandon the war torn country, Zardari too extended support to a peaceful transition in Pakistan’s western neighbour, per the text of his speech released on Monday.

“A peaceful, prosperous and stable Afghanistan is in Pakistan’s national interest,” the President said, before announcing $5 million for the Afghan National Security Forces, with an additional $15 million in training and equipment.

Continuing on this partnership scheme, he said that Pakistan wanted to extend transit trade to Tajikistan and that Pakistan wished to be a part of all initiatives to assist and support economic integration of the region surrounding Afghanistan.

“We all have a stake in durable peace.”

Parliament’s guide lines

Talking about the new engagement policy for Pakistan, as spelled out by the Parliament, Zardari reiterated that the guide lines set by the PCNS recommendations favoured an approach of cooperation and partnership.

For these to survive the long run, he added that as per Parliament’s recommendations, these partnerships must be founded on mutual respect for sovereignty and a cooperative spirit.

“The message I bring to you from Pakistan is that we believe in partnerships based on trust and respect.”

Zardari pointed out that Pakistan had suffered the most losses, but it remained committed to fighting terrorism and extremism, and to root out al Qaeda remnants.

With one of the calls at the summit being that Pakistan expedite the reopening of Ground Lines of Communication (GLOCs), the President said that negotiators were still engaged, with the Defence Committee of the Cabinet issuing directives to conclude them as quickly as possible.

In the end, Zardari said “let us fight together, not just against forces of terrorism and extremism, but also against illiteracy, illicit drugs, hunger, poverty and disease.”

“Ours is a battle of hearts and minds, of the young and the old and of the men and women alike.”

Brief Zardari, Obama meeting

While it wasn't a sitdown meeting, the US President Barack Obama and Pakistani President Zardari finally met on the sidelines of the NATO Summit.

According to a White House statement, President Obama spoke with the Pakistani premier twice on Monday. "They had a brief one-on-one conversation as they made their way into the ISAF meeting this morning. Later this afternoon, the President had the chance to briefly speak with President Zardari and President Karzai, underscoring their shared commitment to an Afghan-led reconciliation process to bring the war to a responsible end," said the statement from the White House.

The meeting took place after US media reported that President Obama had refused to meet President Zardari as Pakistan had still not re-opened the NATO supply routes.]]>
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			<title>Afghans will not stand alone: Obama to NATO</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381997/nato-allies-focus-on-ending-unpopular-afghan-war</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381997/nato-allies-focus-on-ending-unpopular-afghan-war#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 21 May 12 09:51:44 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=381997</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[New French President Francois Hollande refuses to back down from his decision to pull troops out in 2012.]]>
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				<![CDATA[US President Barack Obama Monday vowed that the international community would not abandon Afghanistan as it seeks to take control of its own security and shape its future.

"As Afghans stand up, they will not stand alone," Obama told the opening of an unprecedented Nato gathering of some 60 world leaders discussing the end of the international combat mission in Afghanistan due in 2014.

President Asif Ali Zardari's attendance at the summit here had raised hopes his government was ready to lift a blockade on Nato convoys, but talks on reopening the routes have stumbled over Islamabad's demand to charge steep fees for trucks crossing the border.

Zardari and leaders from some 30 other nations and international organizations will join the 28 Nato allies for Monday's second day of talks.

Leaders of the 28 Nato nations stood in solemn silence as a bugler's lament recalled the heavy cost of a conflict that has killed over 3,000 coalition soldiers, maimed thousands more and left tens of thousands of Afghans dead.

As anti-war protesters clashed with police near the Chicago summit site, the two-day talks aimed to endorse a withdrawal strategy and seek firm commitments from allies to train and bankroll Afghan forces.

Before the summit Obama held talks with Karzai, three weeks after his dramatic trip to Kabul where the two leaders inked a security pact for going forward after the last 130,000 international troops withdraw in late 2014.

"We're confident that we are on the right track, and what this Nato summit reflects is that the world is behind the strategy that we've laid out," said Obama, who faces a tough re-election in November.

But in a sign of growing impatience within the alliance, new French President Francois Hollande refused to back down from his decision to pull troops out in 2012, a year earlier than planned.

"I told everyone I spoke with that this was not negotiable because it was a question of French sovereignty and everyone understood," he said, adding France would continue to train Afghan forces after 2012.

Karzai said his country no longer wanted to be a "burden," urging the international community to complete a security transition to his Afghan forces.

"Afghanistan... is looking forward to an end to this war and a transformational decade in which Afghanistan will be working further for institution building and the development of sound governance in the country," he said.

Along with reaffirming the 2014 deadline, the summit is expected to back Obama's plan to cede the lead in combat missions to Afghan troops next year, while making a commitment to securing $4 billion annually for Afghan forces.

"Once the Afghans have full responsibility by the end of 2014, our combat mission will come to an end but we will not walk away," said Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

A Western official told AFP Sunday that nations with troops in Afghanistan had pledged roughly $1 billion to bankroll Afghan security forces after 2014. The bulk of the funding is expected to come from the United States.

In a sign of the waning appetite for further conflict, Rasmussen said the Western defense alliance "has no intention to intervene" in Syria despite concern at the bloodshed there.

"We strongly condemn the behavior of the Syrian security forces and their crackdowns on the Syrian population and we urge the Syrian leadership to accommodate the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people," he told reporters.

The summit in Obama's hometown went ahead under a massive security operation as normally bustling Chicago streets were deserted.

Boats with machine guns patrolled a river near Obama's hotel and police enforced a wide security perimeter around the conference center.

Thousands of protestors have taken to the streets in recent days calling for an end to war. Although the rallies have been largely peaceful, scuffles broke out Sunday when some hardcore demonstrators refused police orders to disperse.

Police said 45 people had been arrested and four police officers suffered minor injuries.

The Nato talks come against a backdrop of a changing geopolitical landscape for the 63-year-old organization also grappling with shrinking defense budgets.

Leaders on Sunday launched the first phase of a US-led missile shield for Europe and sought to appease Russian anger over the system by renewing an invitation to cooperate.

Obama and fellow leaders also agreed on a slew of some 20 joint projects to pool military hardware as part of a so-called "Smart Defense" initiative.]]>
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			<title>‘Pakistan has important role to play in Afghanistan's stability, security’</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381980/working-with-pakistan-to-reopen-nato-supply-as-soon-as-possible</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381980/working-with-pakistan-to-reopen-nato-supply-as-soon-as-possible#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 21 May 12 06:41:38 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[huma.imtiaz]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=381980</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Summit declaration says Pakistan has important role in Afghanistan, NATO says working to reopen supply routes.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) says it is working with Pakistan to reopen supply routes as soon as possible and that the country had an important role to play in Afghanistan’s stability and security.

In the Chicago Summit declaration, released hours after Nato leaders met at McCormick Place in Chicago:

The countries in the region, particularly Pakistan, have important roles in ensuring enduring peace, stability and security in Afghanistan and in facilitating the completion of the transition process. We stand ready to continue dialogue and practical cooperation with relevant regional actors in this regard. We welcome the progress on transit arrangements with our Central Asian partners and Russia.

The declaration also said that Nato is on track to transition responsibility from Isaf to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) by 2013.

“Nato is ready to work towards establishing, at the request of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, a new post-2014 mission of a different nature in Afghanistan, to train, advise and assist the ANSF, including the Afghan Special Operations Forces. This will not be a combat mission. We task the council to begin immediately work on the military planning process for the post-ISAF mission,” said the declaration.

Nato said that they were calling on the international community “to commit to the long-term sustainment of the ANSF.”

______________________________________________

[poll id="759"]]]>
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			<title>NATO to hand combat role to Afghans as it seeks way out of war</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381950/nato-to-hand-combat-role-to-afghans-as-it-seeks-way-out-of-war</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381950/nato-to-hand-combat-role-to-afghans-as-it-seeks-way-out-of-war#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 21 May 12 04:45:33 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=381950</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Obama warned of &quot;hard days&quot; ahead as he hosted the summit in his home town, Chicago.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Nato will hand over the lead role in combat operations to Afghan forces across the country by mid-2013, alliance leaders said on Sunday as they charted a path out of a war that has lost public support and strained budgets in Western nations.

A Nato summit in Chicago on Monday will formally endorse a US-backed strategy for a gradual exit from Afghanistan, a move aimed at holding together an allied force scrambling to cope with France's decision to withdraw its troops early. President Barack Obama and Nato partners want to show their war-weary voters the end is in sight in a conflict that has dragged on for more than a decade while at the same time trying to reassure Afghans that they will not be abandoned.

"There will be no rush for the exits," Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said as the summit got under way. He sought to put up a show of unity even as France's new President Francois Hollande vowed to stick by his pledge to withdraw French troops by year's end, two years earlier than the alliance timetable.

Nato's plan is to shift full responsibility to Afghan forces for security across the country by the middle of next year and then withdraw most of the alliance's 130,000 combat troops by the end of 2014, Rasmussen said. While foreign forces will continue to fight the Taliban and other militants as necessary - and it may be very necessary - the new mission for US and Nato troops will assume a new focus on advising and supporting Afghan soldiers. Looking toward the November presidential election, Obama - who once called the Afghan conflict a "war of necessity" but is now looking for an orderly way out - sought to dispel the notion that shaky allies will leave US troops to carry the ball alone.

Obama warned of "hard days" ahead as he hosted the summit in his home town, Chicago, a day after major industrialised nations tackled a European debt crisis that menaces the global economy. The shadow cast by fiscal pressures in Europe and elsewhere followed leaders from Obama's presidential retreat in Maryland to the talks on Afghanistan, an unwelcome weight on countries mindful of growing public opposition to a costly war that has failed to defeat the Taliban in nearly 11 years of fighting.

Obama made clear he expected Nato powers to formally embrace the Afghanistan transition plan, which had already been widely telegraphed by the Pentagon earlier this year. But the Chicago talks faced undercurrents of division. Hollande insisted he had no intention of backtracking on a campaign promise for an accelerated troop pullout, which helped him win the presidency from Nicolas Sarkozy this month. He said had reached a "common agreement" on the matter with fellow leaders and he would release details in coming weeks. A poll in January showed 84 percent of the French public backed an early troop withdrawal. France has about 3,400 troops in Afghanistan. "French combat troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of the year," Hollande told reporters. "In 2013, only trainers for police and officers of the Afghan army will remain and this will be done within the framework of ISAF." Hollande's comments underscored the challenge for Obama, who has steadily narrowed his goals in Afghanistan, in plotting a more gradual withdrawal that will not open the way for a Taliban resurgence. "We went into Afghanistan together, we want to leave Afghanistan together," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters.

Karzai thanks US taxpayers

Obama, meeting Afghan President Hamid Karzai on the margins of the summit, said the conference would agree on a "vision post-2014 in which we have ended our combat role, the Afghan war as we understand it is over, but our commitment to friendship and partnership with Afghanistan continues."

Standing next to Obama, Karzai thanked Americans for "your taxpayer money" and said his country looked forward to the day it is "no longer a burden" on the international community.

Karzai's government has been widely criticized for rampant corruption. Karzai's comments alluded to the political bind that Obama and other Western leaders face in underwriting a unpopular war effort and the build-up of Afghan forces during a time of budget austerity at home. With heavy security in place for the Chicago summit, baton-swinging police clashed with anti-war protesters marching by the thousands near the summit venue. Lawyers representing the demonstrators said at least a dozen people were injured, some with head wounds from batons, and more than were arrested.

Trying to inject itself into the Nato proceedings, the Taliban urged countries fighting in Afghanistan to follow France's lead and pull their forces out in accordance with anti-war sentiment in the West. Obama told the summit's opening session: "Just as we have sacrificed together for our common security, we will stand together united in our determination to complete this mission."

Essentially conceding Hollande was unlikely to be dissuaded, General John Allen, the US commander in Afghanistan, played down the impact, saying "we have the capacity, using our current force structure, to ensure there is no degradation in security."

Careful French comments on the issue illustrated the balance Nato leaders must strike as they seek to avoid the appearance of splits with Nato partners without alienating voters who want to see a swift exit. Alliance leaders walked a cautious line in discussions this weekend on long-term funding for the Afghan police and army, whose ability to battle the Taliban is at the core of Nato strategy for leaving Afghanistan smoothly.

The Obama administration, unwilling to be solely on the hook for the $4.1 billion annual price tag, has been seeking promises from its allies to give $1.3 billion a year for Afghan forces. While there are few doubts allies will eventually provide support, Nato appeared unlikely to meet that goal by the end of the meeting.]]>
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			<title>Chicago summit: General Allen plays down urgency of NATO deal</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381882/chicago-summit-general-allen-plays-down-urgency-of-nato-deal</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381882/chicago-summit-general-allen-plays-down-urgency-of-nato-deal#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 21 May 12 04:05:02 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[agencies]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=381882</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Top commander in Afghanistan says agreement could take ‘days or even weeks’.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[General John Allen, the top Nato commander in Afghanistan, would not be disappointed if a long-sought agreement with Pakistan on supply routes failed to materialise by the end of the Nato summit in Chicago on Monday.            


In an interview with Reuters, Allen said he was confident a deal would eventually be struck but “whether it’s in days or weeks, I don’t know.”

Many Obama administration officials had hoped for an agreement with Islamabad in time for the Sunday-Monday summit that would end a nearly six-month ban prohibiting trucks in Pakistan from carrying supplies to Nato forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

Islamabad cut off the ground supply routes after a Nato air strike in November killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, causing a rift with the United States and forcing Nato commanders to look to alternative, most costly routes to supply the war effort.

Asked if he would be disappointed if Pakistan - whose president will attend the summit - didn’t strike an agreement before the end of the Chicago talks, Allen said: “No.”

“I don’t need the (ground supply lines) to be open to support the campaign. But they’re helpful to us in sending home our equipment,” Allen said.

“We don’t want an agreement fast, we want an agreement that’s right. So we’re going to take the time to get it right.”

‘Unacceptable’ demand 

On the other hand, a senior US official told AFP Sunday that US-Pakistani talks on reopening Nato supply routes have faltered over Islamabad’s “unacceptable” demand to charge steep fees for trucks crossing the border.

Pakistan also has failed to present a coherent, consistent position in the negotiations, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The US official said “to some extent it’s something the Pakistanis will have to work out themselves.”

“Inside the Pakistani government, they need a consolidated proposal for what to put on the table.”

The official confirmed that Pakistan has proposed an exponential increase in fees, from the current rate of about $250 per truck to “thousands of dollars.”

“That’s, in a word, unacceptable,” he said, adding that there would be a resolution soon but it will take a little more work.

Asked if the United States was willing to consider a dramatic hike in border fees, the official said: “Not when seven or eight months ago we were paying a small fraction of that figure.”

Meanwhile, US Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes shared General Allen’s optimism about an agreement on reopening Nato supply routes but said the US is not expecting the deal to be completed over the Nato summit weekend.

Speaking to reporters en route to Chicago, Rhodes, according to a press pool report, said that there was no bilateral meeting scheduled between President Asif Ali Zardari and US President Barack Obama. He went on to add that the only bilateral meeting the US president had scheduled is with the Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

According to the pool report, Rhodes said that negotiations for reopening the supply lines are ongoing. “We believe this is going to be resolved. We expect that to take some time. Based on the statements they’ve made, the negotiations going on, we believe it’s going to be accomplished. We’re not anticipating necessarily closing out those negotiations this weekend.” AGENCIES

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21st, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Message for Chicago: Taliban signal readiness for peace talks</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381891/message-for-chicago-taliban-signal-readiness-for-peace-talks</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381891/message-for-chicago-taliban-signal-readiness-for-peace-talks#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 21 May 12 02:38:52 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Naveed Hussain]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=381891</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[They also asked Nato states to pull out from the country or else “they will be erased along with their terror”.]]>
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				<![CDATA[As international leaders gather in Chicago to discuss the future of their mission in Afghanistan, Taliban insurgents have dropped a clear hint that they are ready for a negotiated settlement of the decade-long war.

But at the same time, they have asked Nato states to pull out from the country or else “they will be erased along with their terror”.

“The Islamic Emirate has left all military and political doors open. It wants to secure the rights of the Afghan nation through all possible ways,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement emailed to The Express Tribune on Sunday.

The statement denounced the United States for dilly-dallying on its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and accused Washington of insincerity in its efforts for peace dialogue.

“The Islamic Emirate views the invaders’ claims of finding a political solution as meaningless until they come out of their fluctuating unstable state,” he added.

In March, the Taliban called off talks with US officials in Qatar after accusing the US of reneging on its promises’. Though the Taliban did not list the ‘promises’, media reports claimed that the Taliban had demanded the release of some of their senior cadres from the Guantanamo Bay detention centre.

The Taliban statement also welcomed as ‘grounded on realities’ the newly elected French President Francois Hollande’s announcment that his country would pull out its troops from Afghanistan by the year-end. It called upon other Nato states to follow suit and stop serving ‘America’s political interests’ in Afghanistan.

The statement cited a survey conducted in April by CBS News and New York Times which shows that 69% of Americans want their troops out of Afghanistan. It pointed out that war fatigue was on the rise in Nato states.

The United States and its allies had invaded Afghanistan following the 9/11 terror attacks after the ultra-orthodox Taliban regime refused to hand over al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in connection with the attacks.

The Taliban statement, citing the Central Intelligence Agency, said that all but at least 50 al Qaeda operatives have fled Afghanistan. Still, the US is reluctant to pull out its troops from the country, which shows that they wanted to colonise it, it added.

Earlier this month, US President barack Obama signed a strategic partnership agreement with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai – which by Taliban interpretation is permission for permanent US military presence in Afghanistan. The statement also held out an assurance to the international community that they would not allow their soil to be used by anyone as a springboard for terror attacks anywhere in the world.

“The Islamic Emirate once again declares that it holds no agenda of harming anyone nor will it let anyone harm other countries from the soil of Afghanistan,” it added.

The statement also accused Nato forces of blatant rights violations, killing innocent civilians in night raids and indiscriminate bombing raids, torturing Afghan prisoners in secret cells at their military bases, and raising mercenaries to malign the Taliban.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21st, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Chicago huddle: Amid anti-war protests, NATO summit kicks off</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381890/chicago-huddle-amid-anti-war-protests-nato-summit-kicks-off</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381890/chicago-huddle-amid-anti-war-protests-nato-summit-kicks-off#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 21 May 12 02:24:12 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[M Ziauddin]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=381890</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[President Zardari holds separate talks with Karzai, Clinton.]]>
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				<![CDATA[While a key Nato summit gathering more than 50 world leaders opened in Chicago on Sunday with a minute’s silence for all those who have fallen in combat, a massive demonstration calling for an immediate end to the decade-long war in Afghanistan was successfully vying for media attention outside what in Pakistani parlance would be called the city’s red zone.

As the 28 members of the North-Atlantic Council in heads of state and government format went behind closed doors to focus on their concerns about Afghanistan, President Asif Ali Zardari had a one-on-one meeting with President Hamid Karzai.

Presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar told The Express Tribune that the meeting between Karzai and Zardari lasted for 45 minutes, where the two discussed bilateral relations and the regional situation.

“Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed in principle today to extend the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement beyond Afghanistan to countries in Central Asia. The decision, the modalities of which will be worked out, was taken today at the Zardari-Karzai meeting in Chicago on the sidelines of the Nato summit when President Karzai welcomed the Pakistani president’s proposal to this effect,” said the spokesperson.

Babar said that President Zardari also called for long-term regional and economic engagement and stressed that projects such as the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, CASA-1000, Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (RoZs) and rail and road connectivity could change the destiny of the region.

The president also drew attention to the recent incidents of detention of Pakistani businessmen and professionals visiting Afghanistan and urged him to probe the matter.

Zardari also underscored the need for dealing with the issue of prisoners and called for the establishment of a joint  commission for the purpose.

He said Pakistan would support every effort for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan, including the Qatar process as long as they were acceptable to our Afghan brothers.

He said that peace and stability in Afghanistan was a central concern of Pakistan and reiterated that Pakistani territory shall not be used for any kind of attacks on any other country.

President Zardari also met with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was accompanied by US envoy Mark Grossman and US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani, Ambassador Sherry Rehman, Senator Farhatullah Babar and Secretary General Salman Farooqi accompanied the president.

According to the presidential spokesperson, President  Zardari and Secretary of State Clinton discussed cooperation in the fight against militancy, regional issues and all issues of bilateral concern.

However, there was no mention of whether the on going tussle between the two countries on the resumption of Nato supply routes was discussed.

‘No rush for exits in Afghan war’

Earlier, Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen during his “doorstep” inter-action with the media, said that he hoped that transit routes in Pakistan would open in the very near future.

“We have had dialogue with Pakistan. I am hopeful it will be concluded soon,” he added.

He termed the summit as a powerful demonstration for the people of Afghanistan. “We are in the process of handing over lead responsibility to the Afghans. There is no rush for an exit in Afghanistan; we want to see it through to its success. The number of our troops will gradually reduce,” he remarked. Later at the summit Nato allies pledged $1 billion for Afghan security forces.

In the morning, US President Barack Obama met President Karzai during which the former, seemingly subdued, spoke of his visit to Afghanistan a few weeks ago.

“During that trip to Afghanistan, we were able to finalise the partnership agreement that reflects a future in which two sovereign nations … are operating as partners to the benefit of our countries’ citizens but also for the benefit of peace and security and stability” in the region,” Obama said.

He thanked Karzai and his delegation for their ‘hard work’ on the partnership agreement.

“The Nato summit is going to be largely devoted to ratifying and reflecting the broad consensus that so many of our partners and Isaf members have agreed to,” Obama said, adding that the US was working with its Afghan partners to achieve a complete transition to Afghan rule for Afghan security.

He said Nato will continue to provide support for Afghan security forces during this transition and said Afghan forces have made “excellent progress.”

“We recognise the hardship that the Afghan people have been through,” Obama said.

The Afghan president said the two leaders had a good meeting on Saturday in which Afghanistan reaffirmed its ‘commitment’ to the transition process. The Nato chief in an interview to Chicago Tribune hoped that summit would produce at least two key results: a road map for aiding a post war Afghanistan and the official go-ahead for a missile defence shield for Europe.

He said Nato was in Afghanistan first and foremost to prevent the country from once again becoming a safe haven for terrorists.

“We cannot expect Afghanistan to be what some people might call a perfect society compared to the standard of society we are used to. And less can do,” he added.

He said he was well aware of the planned protests and said a Nato official has met with a protester umbrella group. “In a free society, it’s a constitutional right to express yourself,” he said.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Chicago chapter called and told The Express Tribune that about 40 party members joined the protests calling for an immediate end to drone attacks against Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21st, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Pakistan seeks US help to get over Salala, but per parliament's guidelines</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381930/pakistan-seeks-us-help-to-get-over-salala-but-per-parliaments-guide-lines</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381930/pakistan-seeks-us-help-to-get-over-salala-but-per-parliaments-guide-lines#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 20 May 12 23:56:58 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[huma.imtiaz]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=381930</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Zardari, Clinton discuss supply route, Salala, drone strikes, bilateral trade, assistance in overcoming energy crisis.]]>
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				<![CDATA[President Asif Ali Zardari held bilateral talks with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Chicago on Sunday, wherein he asked the US to help Pakistan reach a closure on the Salala episode “by following the path laid down by the country’s parliament.”

According to a press release, Presidential spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the president reminded the US secretary of state that Pakistan “wanted to find a permanent solution regarding drone strikes since these not only violated Pakistan’s sovereignty but also inflamed the public’s sentiments due to civilian casualties.”

The president also made it clear that Pakistan ‘still felt aggrieved over the Salala incident’.

The president also raised the issue of Coalition Support Fund (CSF) payments with Secretary Clinton.

On the other hand, Secretary Clinton said that the US considers Pakistan an important ally in the war against terror and a partner in the efforts to promote regional peace.

The press release quoted Clinton as saying that the “US wanted to re-engage Pakistan and it respects the parliamentary review of the country’s engagement with the US”.

“It intends to move forward in its relationship with the people of Pakistan,” it added.

However, it was still not clear on what terms did the US intends to move forward in its relationship with Pakistan.

President Zardari also asked Secretary Clinton to help his country gain access to US markets and help Pakistan in “overcoming the present challenges including the energy crisis”.

Regarding the Afghan endgame, the president asserted said that “a genuine reconciliation process in the country which is Afghan-led and Afghan-owned remained the only viable solution to ending the conflict”.

“A trust deficit still remained between Pakistan and the US, on the other hand, and that implies that the goal of establishing a long-term, sustained and durable bilateral equation remains elusive,” he added.

“Bridging this trust deficit is a must for Pakistan in order to reinvigorate the counter-terrorism cooperation with the international community,” he said.

At the same time, “the public ownership of the efforts against terrorism must not be allowed to get weakened through incidents like Salala or the loss of civilian lives as a result of drone attacks”.

The president also highlighted the need “to evolve a mechanism on evolving cooperation on counter terrorism as outlined by country’s parliament”.

“Both sides must consider designing a framework to find a mutually acceptable alternative,” he asserted.

The meeting was attended by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani, Ambassadors Cameron Munter, Marc Grossman and Sherry Rehman and Senator Farhatullah Babar, along with other officials.

A senior State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the two leaders “discussed the importance of reopening Nato supply lines; taking a joint action against elements which threatened Pakistan, the United States and the region including al Qaeda and the Haqqani network; of supporting Afghanistan’s security, stability and efforts towards reaching a reconciliation in addition to negotiating for a US-Pakistan Bilateral Investment Treaty.”]]>
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			<title>A preview of the Chicago summit</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381763/a-preview-of-the-chicago-summit</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381763/a-preview-of-the-chicago-summit#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 20 May 12 20:55:40 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[tanvir.ahmad.khan]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Of Nato’s many concerns, three stand out: its future role and capabilities, Afghanistan, and relations with Russia.]]>
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				<![CDATA[In May 2012, all roads lead to Chicago except the one that President Vladimir Putin did not take. Nato is history’s mightiest military alliance but some four weeks before its largest ever summit — some 60 allies, partners and international organisations — Chicago also hosted the 12th conference of Nobel Peace Laureates who this year highlighted the role of youth in building universal peace. Yet another road has brought Occupy Chicago and a two-day Peoples’ Summit to challenge Nato. Putin has stayed away because there was no prospect of a meaningful Nato-Russian dialogue; Russia will be represented by its special envoy on Afghanistan.

Of Nato’s many concerns, three stand out at Chicago: its future role and capabilities, Afghanistan, and relations with Russia. America’s expectations were set out in a testimony to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on April 24. The centrepiece will be the announcement of the next phase of transition in Afghanistan; second, how to ensure critical defence capability, greater burden-sharing and what Nato’s secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, calls “smart defence”; and third, develop Nato’s role as “a global hub for security partnerships”.

At Chicago, we may have the first glimpse into the thinking of France’s new socialist leader, Francois Hollande. The much-hyped military success in Libya that France and the UK led from the front and the US from behind took no less than seven months at the end of which Muammar Qaddafi was dead and gone but the country became more disjointed and unstable than ever before.

Chicago would endorse the Deterrence and Defence Posture Review with its “appropriate mix of conventional, and missile defence capabilities” in the midst of economic austerity in Europe. Incidentally, Greece, which has been one of the three states with the largest percentage of GDP committed to Nato, faces the worst economic crisis that may culminate in its departure from the Eurozone. On the eve of the Chicago summit, The Economist, a journal that would refuse to visualise a world without Nato, reached a conclusion much less optimistic than what the US hopes to achieve: a future of reduced means and more modest ambitions; it listed America’s “strategic pivot towards the Western Pacific” amongst the causes of European anxieties and feared that doing less may rapidly become a catastrophic “doing nothing”. The Chicago summit will be judged by how it mediated between the maximal American expectations and the constrained European capabilities, particularly as France once again comes into its own with a more realistic semantics of power.

On Afghanistan, Washington hopes for three ‘deliverables’: an agreement on an interim milestone in 2013, for the shift of combat to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), sustaining the huge ANSF and a ‘roadmap for Nato’s post-2014 role’ in Afghanistan. Contrary to the pre-summit rhetoric, Afghanistan’s ground realities are worse than at the time of the Lisbon summit. France may stand firm on disengaging itself two years ahead of the Americans, increasing public pressure on other Nato governments to get out of Afghanistan. Washington’s chronic inability to actually readjust policy between the reigning military policy and a nascent diplomatic quest for an inclusive political settlement prolongs the conflict, raises the spectre of a post-2014 civil war, creates problems for an already insecure President Hamid Karzai and vitiates relations with Pakistan.

Pakistan’s best hope at Chicago is for conversations with Barack President Obama and President Karzai on the sidelines of the summit serving as a reality check that leads to the main warrior nations of Nato moderating their ‘endgame’ strategy and thus avoiding a conflict without end between a foreign-funded (at least for now) and Nato-driven Afghan army and assorted insurgents. Given the realities — economic stringency and renewed calls for social justice in the West, diffusion of power across the globe, Russia’s resolve to respond strongly to Nato’s provocations such as in Georgia and occasionally Ukraine, and Moscow’s pursuit of its own projects such as a ‘union’ of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan and the very limited success of military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, Nato may eventually embrace more realistic objectives and focus substantially on its own trans-Atlantic treaty area in the days to come.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21st, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Bilawal Bhutto Zardari due in US on May 21</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381650/bilawal-bhutto-zardari-due-in-us-on-may-21</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381650/bilawal-bhutto-zardari-due-in-us-on-may-21#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 20 May 12 14:01:39 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[huma.imtiaz]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=381650</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[PPP co-chairm­an to attend the Peabod­y Awards, wherei­n the docume­ntary &quot;Bhutto&quot; is one of the winner­s.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is due to visit Washington DC and New York this week, in his first official visit to the country since 2009.

Talking to The Express Tribune, a source confirmed this development saying that Bilawal would be arriving in New York on May 21 to attend the Peabody Awards, wherein the documentary "Bhutto" is one of the winners.

The PPP co-chairman is then expected to travel to Washington DC for a week long trip.

His visit comes at a time when President Zardari is in Chicago to attend the NATO Summit.]]>
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			<title>General Allen plays down urgency of Pakistan deal</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381648/general-allen-plays-down-urgency-of-pakistan-deal</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381648/general-allen-plays-down-urgency-of-pakistan-deal#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 20 May 12 13:04:52 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=381648</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Adds we don't want an agreement fast, we want an agreement that's right.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[The US commander in Afghanistan told Reuters he would not be disappointed if a long-sought agreement with Pakistan on supply routes failed to materialise by the end of the Nato summit in Chicago on Monday.

General John Allen, who is also the top Nato commander in Afghanistan, said in an interview he was confident a deal would eventually be struck but "whether it's in days or weeks, I don't know."

Many Obama administration officials had hoped for an agreement with Islamabad in time for the Sunday-Monday summit that would end a nearly six-month ban prohibiting trucks in Pakistan from carrying supplies to Nato forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Pakistan cut off the ground supply routes after a Nato air strike in November killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, causing a rift with the United States and forcing Nato commanders to look to alternative, most costly routes to supply the war effort.

Asked if he would be disappointed if Pakistan – whose president will attend the summit - didn't strike an agreement before the end of the Chicago talks, Allen said: "No."

"I don't need the (ground supply lines) to be open to support the campaign. But they're helpful to us in sending home our equipment," Allen said.

"We don't want an agreement fast, we want an agreement that's right. So we're going to take the time to get it right."

No repeat of history

The summit comes as Nato allies seek to extricate themselves from a long and costly war without surrendering an unstable, violent Afghanistan back to militants intent on attacking the West.

Allen faces an extremely difficult task, preparing for the withdrawal of most Nato troops by the end of 2014 even as he continues to build up Afghan security forces and move territory under their control. His strategy has been to speed that transition, while enough US forces are still there to help the Afghans when needed.

"Getting as much of that early in the process as we can, so I've got enough combat power here to support (the Afghans) during that early part of the transition's really important," he said.

Allen will complete the removal of all US surge troops this fall, leaving a US force of about 68,000. He is then due to make recommendations for additional troop reductions after the summer combat season, which should reveal how well Afghan forces can fight - and how well Nato fares with a force smaller than the one that claimed swathes of southern Afghanistan in a troop-heavy, counterinsurgency campaign in 2010.

But the presidential victory in France of Socialist Francois Hollande, who has promised to pull French combat troops from Afghanistan this year, raises questions. Hollande repeated that pledge during his inaugural visit to Washington last week and said an extremely limited number of troops would remain to train Afghan forces and bring back equipment beyond 2012.

Allen said Hollande's plans to accelerate the withdrawal would not affect his strategy. "It's a sovereign decision of France. And we'll work with them and to support whatever decision ultimately they make," he said.

Allen said he believes the summit in Chicago will demonstrate a long-term commitment to Afghanistan's military, allowing Nato to avoid making the same mistake that the Soviet Union did after its withdrawal more than two decades ago.

"After the Soviet Union departed Afghanistan, that army survived for a short period of time. But it was unsupported. And unsupported, it eventually collapsed," Allen said, pointing to the ensuing civil war and rise of the Taliban.

"The trajectory we are on right now, I am confident, will prevent history from repeating itself."]]>
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			<title>Nato 2012 Summit: As leaders gather, Chicago stays on edge</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381548/nato-2012-summit-as-leaders-gather-chicago-stays-on-edge</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381548/nato-2012-summit-as-leaders-gather-chicago-stays-on-edge#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 20 May 12 04:41:28 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[huma.imtiaz]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=381548</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Fears that demonstrations could turn violent have put the city on edge.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[In preparation for hosting over 40 heads of state, Chicago has turned into a police state this weekend.


As the Nato Summit 2012 begins today (Sunday) in President Barack Obama’s hometown, helicopters hover constantly overhead and police and Secret Service personnel are out in full force.

While the Secret Service and the Chicago Police Department declined to comment on specific security measures, McCormick Place, the venue for the summit, resembles a fortress.

Media persons are being ferried via a shuttle to the venue, and cannot leave through any other exit.

At the massive media centre, journalists from around the world are pouring in for the summit that is being billed as a monumental step in the post-2001 history of Afghanistan.

Chicago is also on high alert for protests. Fears that demonstrations could turn violent have put the city on edge. Several street protests held so far this week have been peaceful, and most of the 14 people already arrested were engaged in acts of civil disobedience such as refusing to leave the building housing President Obama’s campaign headquarters.

Three protesters face terror charges

Three anti-war campaigners suspected of planning to throw Molotov cocktails during protests in Chicago face terrorism charges, their lawyers said on Saturday.

The three men charged were identified in the Sun-Times report as Brian Church, 20, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Jared Chase, 24, of Keene, New Hampshire; and Brent Vincent Betterly, 24, of Oakland Park, Florida. They were among nine activists arrested after armed police broke down the door to a house in Chicago on Wednesday, the National Lawyers Guild said.

The raid came after the men posted a video online showing how they were pulled over while driving downtown and questioned about their protest plans, the guild said.

Planned protests

On Sunday, day one of the Nato Summit, anti-war protesters will be marching from Grant Park to McCormick Place. The Chicago Socialists Association, in a statement on their website, stated their mission: “While the bureaucrats and leaders of the world’s military-industrial complex plan their strategies of war and occupation, we must make our voices heard in the streets. We demand an end to the occupation of Afghanistan, which generates one atrocity after another, and the ongoing military actions in Iraq and elsewhere.”

Amnesty International is also advertising their Afghan women summit, taking place simultaneously at the time of the Nato summit. On Sunday, the Afghan Women Summit will release a letter to the US and Afghan Presidents to “urge them to develop a comprehensive plan to protect the rights of Afghan women.” (With additional input from AFP)

&nbsp;

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Afghan endgame: World leaders gather in Chicago for summit</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381542/afghan-endgame-world-leaders-gather-in-chicago-for-summit</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381542/afghan-endgame-world-leaders-gather-in-chicago-for-summit#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 20 May 12 04:32:37 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[M Ziauddin]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=381542</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[NATO meeting to also mull the alliance’s future amid financial crisis.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[President Asif Ali Zardari, along with over 40 counterparts from across the world, descended upon Chicago on Saturday to attend Nato’s 2012 summit that will debate the Afghan endgame and the future of the alliance.


And while the alliance’s main concern is Afghanistan, Pakistan’s ability to make any meaningful contribution, let alone influence, the decision-making process appears to be uncertain.

Nato is primarily bogged down by doubts about its financial future, with most of its European members caught in major financial crises, and the increasingly unpopular mission in Afghanistan.

With France seemingly changing course sharply from right-of-centre to left-of-centre, the summit’s ability to come up with a unified position on all three major concerns of Nato  – Afghanistan, Nato finances and European missile defense – has become less certain.

France’s U-turn

At a bilateral meeting Friday morning between President Obama and French President Hollande, the former is said to have had little success in trying to convince his French counterpart to delay French troops’ departure from Afghanistan by another year or to make reasonable contribution to the proposed kitty of $4 billion – considered the barest minimum to stabilise and sustain long-term peace in Afghanistan.

But Hollande has shaken up the carefully-crafted transition plan, vowing to bring his 3,500 combat troops home this year, over a year earlier than planned.

“The withdrawal is not negotiable. The withdrawal of combat forces is France’s decision and this decision will be implemented,” Hollande told reporters after White House talks with Obama on Friday.

Pakistan at the summit

President Zardari is meeting Nato’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen later this evening and the most likely topic of discussion would be reopening of Nato supply routes. Negotiations are purportedly stalled on the issue of a mutually-agreed rate for transportation of Nato goods, with Pakistan asking at least half of what the US is paying for the Northern Distribution Network (NDN) route which is said to be $5000 for each truck. The US, however, is said to be amenable to pay only a bit more than what it is doing now for getting its goods across Pakistan – about $360 million a year.

Rasmussen, meanwhile, urged Islamabad to back efforts to stabilise Afghanistan.

“We can’t solve the problems in Afghanistan without the positive engagement of Pakistan,” he said at a policy forum in Chicago.

“We have to solve these problems,” he said, referring to the alleged safe havens used by insurgents in Pakistan to launch attacks on Nato troops across the border.

When he meets with Zardari later, Rasmussen said he would “convey a couple of clear messages,” but he did not elaborate.

There will be no bilateral talks between Pakistan and the US though. With both apology and drones off the table, there seems to be no other topic to be discussed between the two, except the opening of routes and its cost which are still being negotiated at a very low level. President Zardari is likely to have bilateral meetings with his Turkish and Afghan counterparts.

Isolation averted

Ambassador Sherry Rehman looked understandably overworked and was not very forthcoming about what objectives Pakistan was likely to achieve at the summit. She was glad, however, that Pakistan was invited after all, without linking the invitation to the opening of the supply routes, and that Pakistan has not missed an opportunity to be able to reiterate its commitment to contribute to meaningfully to the Afghan endgame at the summit.

“We have avoided being consigned to isolation by the world community,” was her relieved remark.

Shamila N Chaudhary, the former Pakistan Director at the White House National Security Council, was rather stern.

The fact that the US has gone this long already with routes closed is unprecedented, proving how much more reliant it had become on the NDN, she said.

“I believe this is the result of a deliberate effort of the administration to be less dependent on Pakistan, given the frequent lapses in cooperation over the past year. Because of this, the US can probably absorb more of a delay although it is not ideal, given plans for drawdown,” she added.

But she believed there was hope.

“At a time when many view Pakistan as part of the problem in Afghanistan, and despite ongoing bilateral tensions, the Obama Administration’s efforts to include Pakistan in the Nato summit exemplifies its view that Pakistan must be part of the solution to the Afghanistan endgame and cannot be ignored.”

“Pakistan’s participation is positive but if it does not open routes soon, it will have lost an opportunity to show support for international efforts to stabilise Afghanistan,” she added. (With additional input from AFP)

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>US does not expect resolution of Nato supply route during Chicago summit</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381589/us-does-not-expect-resolution-of-nato-supply-route-during-chicago-summit</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381589/us-does-not-expect-resolution-of-nato-supply-route-during-chicago-summit#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 20 May 12 02:27:41 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[huma.imtiaz]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=381589</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[White House deputy National Security Advisor says there is no bilateral Zardari, Obama meeting scheduled.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[White House Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said on Saturday that the US did not expect an agreement on the reopening of Nato supply routes through Pakistan to be completed over the weekend while the NATO Summit 2012 takes place.

With Nato extending an invitation to Pakistan to attend the meeting earlier in the week, and slew of ‘politically positive’ statements coming from Islamabad, it was expected that perhaps a deal would be struck before the Chicago moot got underway on Sunday.

However, as Rhodes travelled to Chicago, he told reporters that that there was no bilateral meeting scheduled between President Zardari and President Obama. He added that the only bilateral meeting the US President has scheduled is with the Afghan president Hamid Karzai. The frost between US and its chief ally in the War on Terror continues, for now.

According to a pool report, Rhodes said that negotiations for reopening the supply lines are ongoing. “We believe this is going to be resolved. We expect that to take some time. Based on the statements they’ve made, the negotiations going on, we believe it’s going to be accomplished. We’re not anticipating necessarily closing out those negotiations this weekend.”

On Friday, Pakistan had allowed four containers carrying office supplies for the US embassy in Kabul to cross over from Pakistan, onto the Afghan side of the Durand Line. This was the first consignment to make it through in six months after Pakistan had shut borders with Afghanistan after Nato airstrikes targeted a Pakistan check post and killed 24 soldiers with ‘friendly fire’.]]>
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			<title>Pakistan looking for 'positive conversation' on Nato routes in Chicago: Sherry Rehman</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381547/pakistan-looking-for-positive-conversation-on-nato-routes-in-chicago-sherry-rehman</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381547/pakistan-looking-for-positive-conversation-on-nato-routes-in-chicago-sherry-rehman#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 19 May 12 21:22:23 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=381547</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Says topic of US apology over check post attack not going off the table.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Pakistan Ambassador to the United States, Sherry Rehman has said that Pakistan is looking at a 'positive' conversation about reopening of Nato supply routes but it will be pre-mature to say when the trucks will resume supply.

"Pakistan is still demanding US President Barrack Obama’s apology over Pakistani soldiers death in US air strikes," she told CNN in an interview.

About crossing over of four trucks into Afghanistan, she said,"we are allowing diplomatic cargo, and as far as I know, trucks, cargo and lorries are suspended, ban on some humanitarian supply may have lifted but no serious materials have been crossing over and all have been suspended for six months."

On the eve of the Chicago summit, Ambassador Rehman spelled out Islamabad's position on various issues including the November 26,2011, cross-border drone strikes, reopening of Nato supply routes, Pak-US ties after Salala incident, the May 2 incident and Haqqani network issues.

About the Chicago summit, she said this is a big summit where all leaders especially Pakistan and Afghanistan will be conferring to bring stability and peace to the region. She added that Pakistan had a role in the region and the alliance's summit presented an opportunity to redefine it.

"We have joint goals that can converge, but you know that the relationship is in a bad place for over six months," she pointed out.

About the formal apology from the US over November 26 Nato air strikes, the ambassador said this issue is not going off the table -- 24 coffins draped in our national flag, killed at the hands of not an enemy, but a friend has caused national furor in Pakistan.

She said a joint sitting of the Parliament has asked for a formal apology from the US and Pakistani people seek restriction over air strikes’ deaths.

“This unconditional invitation to Pakistan is a very positive breakthrough. We don't want interference in Afghanistan, but want to support peaceful security transition, which can also bring stability to the region," the envoy said.

On the issue of Osama bin Laden, Sherry Rehman said that there is an Abbottabad Commission that is investigating it. "No body wanted to see OBL in Pakistan, we have helped hunt down al Qaeda," she said.

About the Haqqani network, she said, it has become a catch word to judge the Pak-US relationship, however, she cautioned that the entire relationship could not be predicated on this spin. She pointed out that the Pak-Afghan border is a porous border and it needs policing on both sides to stop the free movement of terrorists across it.]]>
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			<title>NATO chief urges Pakistan to help stabilise Afghanistan</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381315/nato-chief-urges-pakistan-to-help-stabilise-afghanistan</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381315/nato-chief-urges-pakistan-to-help-stabilise-afghanistan#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 19 May 12 16:45:47 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Rasmussen said he would &quot;convey a couple of clear messages,&quot; when he meets Zardari, but he did not elaborate.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[NATO's chief urged Islamabad to back efforts to stabilise Afghanistan as he prepared for talks Saturday with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, on the eve of a NATO summit.

Zardari was invited to the summit in Chicago amid expectations that Pakistan will lift a six-month blockade against NATO supply trucks that was put in place after US air strikes killed 26 Pakistani troops in November.

NATO has also pressed Islamabad to do more to prevent insurgents from taking advantage of the porous Afghan-Pakistani border region to take sanctuary inside Pakistan.

"We can't solve the problems in Afghanistan without the positive engagement of Pakistan," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a policy forum in Chicago, which is hosting the summit on Sunday and Monday.

"We have to solve these problems," he said, referring to the safe havens used by insurgents in Pakistan to launch attacks on NATO troops across the border.

When he meets with Zardari later, Rasmussen said he would "convey a couple of clear messages," but he did not elaborate.

US President Barack Obama will host fellow leaders for two days of talks focused on plans to gradually hand over security control to Afghan forces and pave the way for the withdrawal of 130,000 foreign combat troops by late 2014.

NATO hopes Afghanistan's security forces, which will grow to 352,000 later this year, can take the lead throughout the country next year, enabling foreign troops to gradually switch from combat to training mode.

But France's new President Francois Hollande has shaken up the carefully crafted transition plan, vowing to bring his 3,500 combat troops home this year, a year earlier than planned.

"The withdrawal is not negotiable. The withdrawal of combat forces is France's decision and this decision will be implemented," Hollande told reporters after White House talks with Obama on Friday.

Hollande, however, said he would honor a treaty signed by his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy to provide training support for Afghan police and military forces.

Highlighting the challenges facing Afghan security forces, a suicide bomber struck at a lunch gathering of police and local civilians in the country's southeast on Saturday killing at least 13 people, three of them policemen.

Despite the early French withdrawal, NATO wants to show a united front in the last two years of combat in an increasingly unpopular war in Europe and America.

The alliance will also use the summit to reassure Afghan President Hamid Karzai that NATO will fund his security forces and continue training beyond 2014.

"Let me be clear," Rasmussen said. "NATO will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with Afghanistan."]]>
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			<title>NATO summit: Zardari meets Clinton, Karzai</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381229/nato-summit-zardari-en-route-to-chicago</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381229/nato-summit-zardari-en-route-to-chicago#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 19 May 12 06:52:14 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[huma.imtiaz]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=381229</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Zardar­i's meetin­g with NATO offici­al cancel­led; Hina Khar, Foreign Secret­ary part of delegation.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[President Asif Ali Zardari has met with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai in the first bilateral meetings held by the Pakistani delegation on the sidelines of the Nato summit on Sunday. 

Earlier the president arrived in Chicago on Saturday afternoon (Central Time) to participate in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) Summit 2012.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Farhatullah Babar, the president's spokesperson said that the meeting between Karzai and Zardari lasted 45 minutes, wherein the two discussed bilateral relations and the regional situation.

"Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed in principle today to extend the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement beyond Afghanistan to countries in Central Asia. The decision, the modalities of which will be worked out, was taken today at the Zardari-Karzai meeting in Chicago on the sidelines of NATO summit when President Karzai welcomed the Pakistani President's proposal to this effect," said the spokesperson.

Zardari was scheduled to meet Nato Secretary General Fogh Rasmussen on Saturday. However, officials told The Express Tribune that it had been cancelled. A Nato public affairs official said that the meeting had been cancelled due to agenda reasons.

A Pakistan embassy spokesperson explained that the President's plane had been delayed, and that the meeting will be rescheduled. "We are in touch with NATO for rescheduling the meeting."

Zardari's plane had landed only two hours before the announcement for the meeting's cancellation was issued.

A spokesperson for the Embassy of Pakistan told The Express Tribune that the president would be accompanied by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani.

Zardari had been scheduled to meet Clinton and Karzai on the sidelines of the summit.

However, a source said it was unlikely that there would be a bilateral meeting between US President Barack Obama and the Pakistani president.

On Thursday, White House National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, in a press briefing, did not comment on whether the two premiers would be meeting one-on-one, however he said they would meet during the Nato summit meetings.

The President is also due to meet Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Sunday and is scheduled to attend a dinner of non-Nato partner countries.]]>
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			<title>Afghanistan fundraising goal elusive before NATO summit</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381217/afghanistan-fundraising-goal-elusive-before-nato-summit</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381217/afghanistan-fundraising-goal-elusive-before-nato-summit#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 19 May 12 05:26:28 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=381217</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Going into the NATO summit, the United States remains $300 million to $500 million short of their $1.3 billion goal.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Just days before this weekend's Nato summit, the United States remains short of its goal of raising $1.3 billion in security funds from its partners in Afghanistan, after a money-raising blitz failed to garner immediate contributions from allies facing fiscal and political pressures.

Who will pay for Afghanistan's future security will be central when President Barack Obama hosts leaders from Nato and other nations in his hometown of Chicago for the two-day summit starting on Sunday that will outline the Western path out of the long war.

"There was some hope that the kitty would be full by Chicago. That may not happen but it doesn't mean we won't achieve that goal in the future," a US official said.

"We expect a number of countries to pony up, and that's a sign of progress toward sustaining (Afghan forces) in the years to come," the official said.

Going into the weekend, the United States remains $300 million to $500 million short of that goal. Western nations, grappling with fiscal crisis and mindful of dwindling support for the war, are eager to chart a course out of Afghanistan, even as the Taliban continues to pose a serious threat to the weak, corrupt Afghan government.

Afghanistan's growing national police and army are at the core of Nato's strategy for removing most foreign troops by the end of 2014 without triggering the collapse of its Western-backed government. Keeping those forces armed and fighting in a country still heavily reliant on outside aid will cost an estimated $4 billion a year. To supplement American assistance, the Obama administration is asking its allies to provide $1.3 billion of that annually.

Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, speaking in Brussels last month, said Chicago would not be a "pledging conference."

But officials in Washington had hoped privately to secure those commitments before the summit, which is seen as an opportunity for Obama to brandish his foreign policy achievements before the November election. With other earlier goals for Chicago on hold - such as a once-hoped-for breakthrough in initial peace talks with the Taliban - a strong outside commitment to funding Afghan forces takes on more importance for Nato leaders at the summit.

Public and private pledges

Pledges made publicly and privately toward the goal now amount to $800 million to $1 billion. Of that Britain, Germany, and Australia have announced annual support for Afghan forces worth about $400 million combined. In addition, the Afghan government has committed $500 million a year.

A Nato official told reporters in Kabul this week the alliance "hopes" the $4.1 billion total goal can be met in Chicago.

While more support may be unveiled in the coming days, not all nations the United States has tapped have been ready to step forward. France, whose new president, Francois Hollande, has promised to accelerate the French departure from Afghanistan, is not expected to make a commitment at Chicago.

"Financial commitments cannot be made here," a French diplomatic source said. "The US in some ways underestimated the complexity of the decision-making process in other capitals" in its push to raise that money, one Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity. "Although most ISAF members agree properly funding (Afghan forces) is critical, in the current fiscal and political climate, any new funding commitment is subject to an extensive debate. This meant it took longer to raise the funds than the US anticipated," the diplomat said.

Obama dispatched his special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, to European capitals this spring to press for commitments. But funding requests may have not been made to countries early enough.

"The economic problems in Europe and the United States, combined with the continued concerns about corruption inside of Afghanistan, makes it an uphill battle to get countries to make long-term commitments on funding for Afghanistan," said Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

Japan, another important ally that will host a conference on aid to Afghanistan this summer, has not yet come forward. Neither have Gulf allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Although the scenarios under consideration would cost the United States far less than it now spends in Afghanistan, the Obama administration itself will not be immune to pushback from skeptical US lawmakers, Katulis said.

In New York, the UN special envoy to Afghanistan, Jan Kubis, said a clear commitment was needed from countries at the Nato summit, "not words, not political pledges, not messages." "If the countries will fail to support Afghanistan, (then) in five, 10 years from now ... we might have a very nasty situation coming back," he told Reuters. "We don't want to have once again a restart of everything because it will be a lost investment ... including lives lost in vain."

The US official said funding goals were expected to be met eventually. "Everyone understands the stakes," the official said. "It would be a serious mistake to abandon Afghanistan like it was abandoned in 1989. We have a responsibility to support (Afghan forces)."

About 3,000 foreign soldiers have died in Afghanistan since the war began after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.]]>
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			<title>Prelude to reopening?: US ‘diplomatic supplies’ allowed into Afghanistan</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381138/prelude-to-reopening-us-%e2%80%98diplomatic-supplies%e2%80%99-allowed-into-afghanistan</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381138/prelude-to-reopening-us-%e2%80%98diplomatic-supplies%e2%80%99-allowed-into-afghanistan#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 19 May 12 00:30:24 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[kamran.yousaf]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=381138</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Embassy spokesperson says permission for these trucks has nothing to do with Nato supply route - which remains closed.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Pakistan appears to be finally gearing up for lifting the months-old ban on Nato supplies for foreign troops fighting a deadly Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.


In a clearest sign as yet, the authorities opened a vital border crossing this week, albeit briefly, to allow at least four containers of ‘office supplies’ for the US Embassy in Kabul to cross into Afghanistan for the first time in six months.

The development comes as President Asif Ali Zardari left on Friday for a key Nato summit in Chicago scheduled for May 20 and 21 where the issue of blocked supplies is likely to figure prominently.

Pakistan is under intense US pressure to lift the blockade before the Chicago gathering.

A US Embassy spokesperson in Islamabad confirmed that ‘a few non-Nato containers carrying diplomatic cargo’ were allowed to cross into Afghanistan from the Torkham border.

However, Mark Stroh made it clear that the permission had nothing to do with the resumption of Nato supplies suspended since November last year following the deadly Nato air raid in Salala.

“Nato supply routes remain blocked,” he added.

But the brief opening of the land routes is being seen as a prelude to the eventual resumption of supplies for the Western forces in Afghanistan.

A Foreign Office official said that the ‘diplomatic courier’ had no linkage with the Ground Lines of Communications (GLOCs), as Nato supply routes are called in official jargon,  but acknowledged that it was a sign of easing of tensions between the two countries.

“I can’t give you the exact number but a lot more will go to Afghanistan in coming days. These all are diplomatic shipments – I mean non-Nato supplies,” a Peshawar-based official was quoted as saying by AFP.

There were conflicting accounts of when the trucks crossed, with one source saying they began moving earlier in the week and another saying they passed through on Friday.

Almost 300 containers of US Embassy supplies, including stationery, computers and printers, are understood to have been stranded in Pakistan by the blockade.

An American diplomat claimed that, under the Vienna Convention, Pakistan should not have stopped ‘diplomatic shipments’ at first place when it shut down supply lines for Nato goods.


Published in The Express Tribune, May 19th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Coalition support fund: US Congress links Pakistan payments to NATO routes</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381140/coalition-support-fund-us-congress-links-pakistan-payments-to-nato-routes</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381140/coalition-support-fund-us-congress-links-pakistan-payments-to-nato-routes#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 18 May 12 23:51:25 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[huma.imtiaz]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=381140</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Ambassador Sherry says the move will not help bring Pak-US ties back on track.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Though the deed, as it were, has all but been done, the US has shown Islamabad what the repercussions could have been. 


US lawmakers vented their frustration on Friday with the closure of Nato supply routes by Pakistan as they debated an annual defence policy bill that seeks $642.5 billion in military spending for fiscal 2013.

House of Representatives lawmakers debating the National Defence Authorisation Act voted almost unanimously (412 to 1 votes) for an amendment that could block up to $650 million in proposed payments to Pakistan unless Islamabad lets coalition forces resume shipment of war supplies across its territory.

Pakistan, for the current fiscal, has budgeted $1.34 billion, or Rs118.7 billion, on account of Coalition Support Fund (CSF) reimbursement – but the US has not released the amount yet. Outstanding CSF dues at present amount to $2.5 billion.

Pakistan had closed down the Nato supply routes in reprisal for a US air raid on border posts that had killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers in November, last year.

Officially, the Pakistani government denies any agreement on the reopening of the vital land routes, but diplomatic sources say Islamabad and Washington have almost clinched a deal.

In the wake of the amendment, CFS will be released if the US defence secretary certifies that “Pakistan has opened the ground lines of communication, is allowing the transit of Nato supplies through Pakistan into Afghanistan, and is supporting the retrograde of US equipment out of Afghanistan.”

The amendment was introduced by Representative Gerald Connolly.

The Express Tribune has learnt that following the passage of the amendment, Pakistan’s Ambassador in Washington Sherry Rehman had a series of meetings with senior Republican and Democratic leaders in the Congress.

She told the Congressional leaders that the amendment “would not help bring the (Pakistan-US) relationship back on track”. She told them that Pakistan “stood to gain more from peace and stability in Afghanistan, and it is therefore incorrect to blame Pakistan for the difficulties in Afghanistan”.

Among others, Ambassador Sherry is said to have met with Nancy Pelosi, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Senators John Kerry, Dianne Feinstein and Carl Levin.

Criticism of Afghan war 

While debating the defence policy bill, war-weary Democrats nudged President Barack Obama to speed up the withdrawal of US forces from the war zone, but Republicans blocked a debate on the issue ahead of a weekend Nato summit in Chicago to chart a way forward in the decade-long conflict.

Lawmakers debated more than 140 amendments to the policy bill, which seeks $554 billion in base defence spending for the 2013 fiscal year beginning in October and $88.5 billion for the Afghan war and other overseas operations.

The measure has drawn a veto threat from the White House because it would overturn many cuts sought by Defence Secretary Leon Panetta in order to achieve congressional budget targets set last year with the goal of cutting $478 billion in projected military spending in the next decade.

While the authorisation act sets spending limits, it does not actually appropriate funds for defence.

The pressure for an accelerated withdrawal from Afghanistan came ahead of the two-day Chicago summit starting on Sunday where leaders will discuss the final transition to Afghan security control and the withdrawal of international forces by the end of 2014.

Earlier this week Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen invited Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari to the key gathering of world leaders which will discuss the Afghan endgame. Rasmussen had earlier hinted that Islamabad would be invited only if it unblocked the Nato supply routes.

Rohrabacher’s amendment vetoed 

In a related move, the Congress overwhelmingly voted out the Pakistan Terrorism Accountability Act 2012 bill moved by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.

Three hundred and thirty-five lawmakers voted against, while 84 voted in favour of the bill introduced a week earlier in the Congress.

The bill asked the US administration to provide $50 million each to American citizens “killed as a result of actions of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) or support provided by the ISI to other organisations or individuals, including the Haqqani Network”.

The bill also stated that the $50 million per victim be withheld from US assistance to Pakistan.

It further asked the defence secretary to certify every month how many US citizens had been killed as a result of support by the ISI to the Haqqani Network and other organisations.

(With additional input from REUTERS)


Published in The Express Tribune, May 19th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Hopes fading for swift US, Pakistan deal on Afghan supply routes</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381174/hopes-fading-for-swift-us-pakistan-deal-on-afghan-supply-routes</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/381174/hopes-fading-for-swift-us-pakistan-deal-on-afghan-supply-routes#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 18 May 12 22:40:30 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=381174</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[As Zardari travels to attend the Chicago summit, the deadlock over Nato supply routes remain.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The Obama administration may be not be able to strike a long-awaited agreement with Pakistan to help supply Western soldiers in Afghanistan as hoped in time for a major Nato summit in Chicago this weekend, a US official said. 

"There's a distinct possibility that we may not see an agreement before the end of this weekend," the US official said on condition of anonymity. "But talks are progressing and we do expect to reach a deal in the near future."

Earlier this week, as Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari accepted a last-minute Nato invitation to the May 20-21 summit, many US officials were optimistic they could finally make a deal to reopen key Nato ground routes into Afghanistan. Pakistan shut the routes in protest when US aircraft killed 24 Pakistani soldiers along the Afghan border in November.

Zardari's appearance at the summit was seen as a potential breakthrough after the border deaths plunged perennially poor US-Pakistan ties into a deep freeze for months.

Now, as the two countries continue to disagree about details of a possible deal, that optimism appears to have faded.

Nato nations, grappling with severe fiscal pressure at home, are anxious to reach an agreement under which Pakistan would allow Nato trucks to once again travel on Pakistani roads, in part because shipping supplies into land-locked Afghanistan from the north is much more expensive.

Being able to transit across Pakistan becomes even more important as US commanders prepare for the monumental logistical task of withdrawing most of the 128,000 Nato soldiers in Afghanistan - and the equipment they have accumulated since 2001 - by the end of 2014.

Negotiations between US and Pakistani officials in Islamabad have dragged on.

From the beginning, Zardari's government has demanded a high-level apology for the border deaths, which Nato said were accidental but which enraged Pakistanis.

The Obama administration, loathe to expose itself to further Republican criticism, has refused to apologise.

The US official said a "wide gulf" remained on the amount Nato nations would be charged for transporting equipment into Afghanistan, the central stumbling block in those talks.

Pakistan says its roads require millions of dollars in repairs after years of Nato trucks going back and forth on it. The amount that Pakistani officials believe should be charged is far higher than what US officials have offered.

"The fees proposed by the Pakistanis are unacceptable, not just to the United States but to our NATO allies," the official said.

Lack of an agreement could add strains to interactions between President Barack Obama and other senior US officials and Pakistani leaders during the summit. US officials have long complained that Pakistan has failed to act sufficiently against militants fighting US troops in Afghanistan.

The White House said on Thursday that Obama had no plans for a one-on-one meeting with Zardari.

Still, Zardari's government supports reopening the supply routes once a deal can be reached that satisfies both sides. For that reason the Obama administration expects to ultimately find an arrangement on the supply routes and on the precise amount of US military assistance Washington owes Pakistan.]]>
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			<title>All set for Chicago; PM orders finalising NATO deal</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/380661/all-set-for-chicago-pm-orders-finalising-nato-deal</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/380661/all-set-for-chicago-pm-orders-finalising-nato-deal#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 18 May 12 00:50:30 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[kamran.yousaf]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=380661</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Gen Kayani believed to have decided against attending key summit.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The resumption of Nato supply routes seems to be well on track.


As the foreign office confirmed President Asif Ali Zardari’s attendance at a key moot on the future of Afghanistan in Chicago on Thursday, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani ordered officials to finalise an agreement as quickly as possible on lifting a six-month blockade on overland Nato supplies into war-torn Afghanistan.

On the other hand, questions have arisen regarding army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani’s absence in Chicago.

In a move believed to be taken by the military to distance itself from the decision to reopen Nato supply routes for US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, the army chief will not be in attendance at the key summit in Chicago, sources told The Express Tribune.

Chief of Army Staff Gen Kayani was believed to have been considering being part of the Pakistani delegation, headed by President Asif Zardari, for the historic gathering of over 60 world leaders who are to discuss Afghanistan’s future roadmap.

“General Kayani was considering attending the summit, but he eventually decided against it,” an official familiar with the development told The Express Tribune. However, the official requesting anonymity did not cite any specific reasons behind General Kayani’s decision.

It is believed that his move might be an attempt to dispel the impression that the top military leadership had anything to do with the resumption of Nato supplies.

In an effort to distance itself from the issue, the army has also denied reports that recently held trilateral talks amongst the top military commanders from Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States had discussed the reopening of Nato supply routes.

Interestingly, the military’s media wing took three days to rebut news stories appearing both in local and international media.

Despite repeated attempts, Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Athar Abbas could not be reached for the official version.

When approached, the presidential spokesperson confirmed that Kayani was not travelling to Chicago as he was not part of the entourage.

According to Farhatullah Babar, the President would be accompanied by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani at the summit.

Negotiations to be finalised soon: PM

“We have directed the concerned ministries and departments to conclude the process as soon as possible,” Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani told reporters on Thursday after attending an event here in Islamabad.

The premier went on to add that the final decision would depend on the outcome of ongoing talks, adding that negotiations over the resumption of Nato supply routes were under way and would be finalised soon.

The prime minister also confirmed that President Asif Ali Zardari would attend the Nato summit in Chicago – a move already endorsed by both the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) and the federal cabinet.

Pakistani and US officials have been locked in talks to finalise a deal on reopening Nato routes, allowing thousands of trucks and oil tankers to carry non-lethal supplies from Karachi to Afghanistan.

Islamabad shut its Afghan border crossings to Nato supplies on November 26 after US air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Meanwhile, in a statement, the Foreign Office said that a final decision on reopening the routes will be taken in the best national interest of the country.

“As decided by the Defense Committee of the Cabinet, negotiations on Nato supply, question of apology, fresh border ground rules and cessation of drone attacks are being carried out in a transparent manner,” said the foreign ministry statement.

Obama-Zardari meeting 

Meanwhile, at a press briefing White House National Security Advisor Tom Donilon said that there were no plans yet for US President Barack Obama and Pakistani President Asif Zardari to have a separate bilateral meeting; however he clarified that they will meet during the course of the summit in the Afghanistan meetings.

In response to a question, the White House advisor said, “President Zardari was invited to attend the summit and he will do so. He is coming with the Foreign Minister and Foreign Secretary.”

Donilon said that the Pakistani President would attend the meetings being held on Afghanistan on the first day of the summit, adding that there had been “real progress” on the opening of Nato supply routes.

“The key government groups in Islamabad have instructed their negotiators to move to conclude the negotiations.” However, he said that he could not judge at this point when a decision in this matter would be taken.

(Read: Emotion and logic)

(With additional input from Huma Imtiaz in Washington)

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>'Real progress' made on reopening Nato supply routes: White House official</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/380668/real-progress-made-on-reopening-nato-supply-routes-white-house-official</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/380668/real-progress-made-on-reopening-nato-supply-routes-white-house-official#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 17 May 12 21:47:05 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[huma.imtiaz]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=380668</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Whit House official says no plans yet of a one-on-one meeting between Zardari and Obama at the Chicago summit.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[With the Nato Chicago summit nearing, the US remains hopeful for a signal from Islamabad that the supply route, blocked for six months, would be reopened sooner, rather than later.

Earlier in the month, it seemed as if Nato had subjected extending an invitation to the summit to reopening of the route. With top Pakistani officials gathering in a huddle midweek and declaring that keeping the supply line closed was hurting Pakistan more than helping, and that Pakistan must “move on from Salala,” that the invitation was extended, with the matter of routes reopening notwithstanding.

For the US, the official line holds that talks, despite taking a breather on Thursday, were ongoing, with 'real progress' and a declared urgency in bringing closure to the issue.

With negotiators from both sides due to resume on Friday, the possibility of a deal in time for the conference cannot be ruled out.

Discussion on GLOCs continue

On Thursday Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense George Little, in a press briefing at the Pentagon, said that the discussions on Ground Lines Of Communications (GLOCs) continue.

Not commenting on the various figures reported in the press on how much the re-opening of the routes would cost, Little said that they remain hopeful that the routes will be opened.

He said that they have supplies in Afghanistan, but it would be "helpful to have the routes re-opened".

One-on-one Zardari, Obama Chicago meeting up in the air

In a press briefing just days before the United States hosts the NATO summit in the city of Chicago, White House National Security Advisor Tom Donilon says that there are no plans yet for US President Barack Obama and President Asif Zardari to have a separate bilateral meeting, however he clarified that they will meet during the course of the summit in the Afghanistan meetings.

In response to a question, the White House advisor said, “President Zardari was invited to attend the summit and he will do so. He is coming with the Foreign Minister and Foreign Secretary.” Donilon said that the Pakistani President would attend the meetings being held on Afghanistan on the first day of the summit. Pakistan army chief, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani is not due to attend the summit.

Donilon said that there has been “real progress” on opening the NATO supply routes. “The key government groups in Islamabad have instructed their negotiators to move to conclude the negotiations.” However, he said that he could not judge at this point when a decision in this matter would be taken.

The security advisor said that there are three key issues that they expect to discuss vis a vis Afghanistan, which include how the Afghan forces will get into combat mode as ISAF forces shift to training and advising mode, the size, structure and sustainability of the Afghan National Force post-2014 and the nature of the presence of NATO in Afghanistan after 2014.

Donilon declined to comment on compensation given to victims of drone strikes in countries other than Afghanistan, and also didn’t comment on the lawsuits filed by family members of victims of drone strikes in Pakistan. However, he said that the US has undertaken a determined and targeted effort against al Qaeda and its associates.

“That effort has been successful, and it has a lot of elements to it.” The security advisor added that it was carefully overseen by the White House and senior members of the administration. Referring to White House official John Brennan’s speech on drones at a think tank in late April, Donilon said it was “consistent with international and domestic law.”

US-Pakistan negotiations take a day long breather 

State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland, while declining to comment on whether a decision on the re-opening of the NATO supply routes would happen before the NATO summit in Chicago this weekend, said that the US is continuing its discussions with Pakistan on the Ground Lines of Communication.

In response to a question, Nuland said that the teams discussing the matter had taken a pause on Thursday and would resume on Friday.

She declined to comment whether the US Embassy in Islamabad had increased security after NATO countries' embassies received envelopes with black powder on Wednesday.]]>
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			<title>Zardari will attend Chicago summit: FO</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/380238/zardari-will-attend-chicago-summit-fo</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/380238/zardari-will-attend-chicago-summit-fo#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 17 May 12 09:25:03 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=380238</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar will accompany Zardari to Chicago, says foreign ministry.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[President Asif Ali Zardari will attend a key NATO summit in Chicago on the future of Afghanistan, Islamabad confirmed on Thursday.

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar would accompany Zardari to Chicago, the foreign ministry said.

The cabinet on Wednesday welcomed a last-minute NATO invitation to Zardari, clearing the way for him to travel after Islamabad boycotted the last major talks on Afghanistan in Bonn last December over US air strikes that killed 24 of its troops.

By going to Chicago, Pakistan hopes to ease its international isolation and boost its leverage over the future of Afghanistan, as Western countries pull out their combat forces by 2014.

Pakistan is expected to lift a six-month blockade on NATO supplies travelling through its territory imposed in the wake of the November air strikes, but is still in negotiations with US officials on logistics and fees.

On Wednesday, the government ordered officials negotiating with the United States to finalise an agreement as quickly as possible, to allow thousands of trucks and oil tankers to carry non-lethal supplies from Karachi to landlocked Afghanistan.

Sources familiar with the talks say transit fees for the vehicles are the main sticking point and the border will probably reopen by early next week.

Islamabad is looking to more than double the payments, which could earn the country up to $1 million a day.]]>
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			<title>Afghans seek $4.1 billion a year from NATO summit</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/380175/afghans-seek-4-1-billion-a-year-from-nato-summit</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/380175/afghans-seek-4-1-billion-a-year-from-nato-summit#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 17 May 12 05:17:18 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=380175</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Kabul is looking to the Chicago summit to set the $4.1 billion dollars a year in stone.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Afghanistan goes to the Nato summit in Chicago on Sunday with a firm demand for $4.1 billion a year for its security forces after Western troops pull out in 2014 -- and insists it is "not charity".

Afghanistan, fearing a new civil war or military advances by hardline Islamist insurgents following the withdrawal, sees the cash as an investment in the West's own security against terrorism.

"This is not charity, Afghanistan is and will be on the frontline of the world's fight against terrorism," Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin told foreign journalists ahead of the summit.

"We Afghans will be making sacrifices for years to come in what is essentially an international war."

After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the United States led an invasion of Afghanistan to topple the Taliban regime for harbouring al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden -- and Nato still has some 130,000 troops fighting an insurgency.

But with the long war increasingly unpopular in the West, Nato has set 2014 as the deadline for pulling its combat troops out, while training some 350,000 Afghan security forces to take over the fight.

US President Barack Obama flew to Kabul at the beginning of May to sign a Strategic Partnership Agreement with President Hamid Karzai, covering relations between the two countries until 2024.

But the pact does not specify the funding to be provided for the Afghan army and paramilitary forces -- and Kabul is looking to the Chicago summit to set the $4.1 billion dollars a year in stone.

Describing the figure as "modest", Ludin said it would be far cheaper for contributing countries to have Afghans fighting the war on terror on their behalf than doing it themselves.

The United States, which has nearly 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, spends close to $10 billion a month on the war.

In return for the funding, Afghanistan will commit to preserving gains in respect of democracy and human rights, and will be an ally of the international community in the fight against terrorism, Ludin said.

But it will strongly oppose any conditions being set on the funding.

"As long as terrorism remains a threat to our security and the security of the international community, Afghan people will be making sacrifices on behalf of the world," the deputy foreign minister said.

"Those sacrifices will have to be respected and the world has to really recognise that any contributions will be part of this equal partnership -- an investment rather than an act of charity."

Issues such as corruption, an enormous problem in an unstable country awash with billions of dollars in foreign funds for the past 10 years, should be dealt with by the Afghan state itself, he said.

Ludin pointed out that corruption -- "a dark and tragic aspect of the past 10 years" -- was rife not only within the government but widespread outside it, "including in the contract systems of the international community".

Afghanistan itself will provide $500 million of the $4.1 billion from its own resources, while the United States is expected to contribute some $2 billion and wants the international community to cover the rest.

That money is purely to support the security forces -- development aid will be the subject of a separate conference to be held in Tokyo in July.

Afghanistan gets roughly $15.7 billion of international aid annually, according to a recent World Bank report, but that is expected to drop sharply as the troops pull out, leading to losses of tens of thousands of jobs and potential instability.

Another possible hazard is a plan to reduce the size of the Afghan security forces from 352,000 to 228,000 by around 2017, potentially leaving more than 100,000 trained fighters without jobs.

In Chicago, NATO is sure to talk up the ability of Afghanistan to survive the departure of its troops, both in terms of security and the economy.

But that optimism is not widely shared in Afghanistan, with record numbers of young, educated Afghans trying to get out of a country they fear might collapse once again.

More than 30,000 Afghans applied for asylum in industrialised nations in 2011, the highest level in a decade, according to United Nations figures -- and thousands more simply try to make new lives abroad illegally.

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>In Chicago: Zardari, Obama, Karzai to discuss Taliban peace talks</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/380078/in-chicago-zardari-obama-karzai-to-discuss-taliban-peace-talks</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/380078/in-chicago-zardari-obama-karzai-to-discuss-taliban-peace-talks#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 17 May 12 04:02:07 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[kamran.yousaf]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=380078</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[‘Core group’ may meet for the first time on the sidelines of the Nato summit.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Top leaders from Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States are expected to discuss new measures to expedite the reconciliation process in the war-torn country at crucial talks on the margins of the upcoming Nato summit in Chicago this weekend.


The three capitals are currently discussing the possibility of a ‘core group’ meeting at the summit level when the presidents of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US will be in Chicago to attend the historic gathering slated for May 20-21, an official told The Express Tribune.

The group was formed in early 2011 to coordinate efforts for reaching out to the Taliban. Since then officials from the three countries have held several rounds of talks to work out modalities for holding direct negotiations with the insurgents in Afghanistan.

However, this is going to be for the first time the meeting of the core group will take place at the highest level, added the official.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official described the expected meeting among Presidents Asif Ali Zardari, Hamid Karzai and Barack Obama as ‘significant’, saying the three-way talks will likely involve discussion on new initiatives to seek a peaceful end to the Afghan conflict.

“We have a consistent position that the road to peace in Afghanistan goes through a meaningful reconciliation process,” another official pointed out.

“That is why we have stated a number of times that Pakistan is in favour of an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-driven peace process,” the official maintained.

It is expected that Islamabad will reiterate this position at the three-way talks with emphasis on having a clear roadmap for the Afghan endgame.

Islamabad believes that the centre of gravity as far as peace negotiations are concerned must be Kabul instead of any other world capital.

This approach comes in direct conflict with the US, which is currently pushing for the Qatar initiative to make peace with the ‘reconcilable’ Taliban.

Last month, top diplomats from Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US in their talks in Islamabad took a major initiative to encourage insurgents to sit at the negotiating table.

They agreed to launch a new initiative that envisages providing safe passage to Afghan Taliban who are willing to enter the peace process.

The core group will help arrange a safe passage for the Taliban who will travel for peace talks through Pakistan, overseas and also in Afghanistan.

However, the success of the new initiative remains to be seen as many experts believe that previous attempts to lure foot-soldiers of the Afghan Taliban have failed.

Nevertheless, representatives from the three countries described the proposal as a step in the right direction.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Going to Chicago</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/379809/going-to-chicago</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/379809/going-to-chicago#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 16 May 12 19:23:18 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Editorial]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=379809</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Parliament, military should step back and see what they did and how they could have done things differently.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has invited President Asif Ali Zardari to the historic gathering of over 60 world leaders in Chicago on May 20 and 21 to resolve the Afghan issue before the Nato forces start leaving Afghanistan. President Zardari is said to have accepted the invitation as per earlier negotiations to finally resolve the deadlock which developed at the end of 2011 between the US and Pakistan and which had led to Pakistan boycotting the 2011 Bonn Summit.

The Defence Committee of the Cabinet has given the go ahead to lift the almost six-month-long blockade on Nato supplies passing through the country, an issue that had brought US-Nato relations with Pakistan to their lowest. A consensual but abnormally slow-grinding process, producing a set of recommendations took the country’s foreign policy out of the ambit of normal diplomacy. After realising — despite a lot of  ‘patriotic’ commentary by angry analysts — that letting parliament in on foreign policy was an excessive step, the establishment finally decided to go back to tried-and-tested diplomacy.

Parliament had front-loaded two issues that were pre-eminently suited for diplomatic negotiation and likely to give Pakistan an upper hand, had diplomacy not been undercut by emotional representatives of the people equally driven by an emotional establishment: drone attacks and an apology by the US on the Salala incident. Thus, Pakistan needlessly tested the limits of its power and influence as a frontline state only to find that relying on emotion and notions of honour, instead of reason and logic, to determine such an important policy matter was a route that it should never have adopted.

The Bonn conference on Afghanistan in December last year bore no significant results, which was no surprise. Pakistan had stayed away, the Iranians attended but were rather tentative in their commitment, aid donors had held back to see what other aid donors would do, and Afghan president Hamid Karzai had painted a discouraging picture of what looked like indefinite dependence of his country on international largesse. The timing of the Bonn summit was bad. Pakistan-US relations had hit rock bottom, though everybody still recognised that Pakistan remained the most important of the regional players. America’s relations with Iran were bad then and remain bad this time too, unless Teheran reformulates its stance. Is there a window of opportunity for Pakistan to do some give-and-take on Afghanistan to get the US-Nato approval on the Iranian gas pipeline? Another topic on which the popular feeling in Pakistan is quite intense. First China and then Russia — both sanctions-busters vis-à-vis Iran — have backed out of constructing the pipeline on the Pakistani side.

It is time we became realistic about the conduct of Pakistan’s foreign policy and realised that Afghanistan is a nettlesome issue on which we don’t have a coherent policy except for that embarrassing and only half-heartedly claimed doctrine of  “strategic depth”. High-ranking officers of the army serving in the field against Taliban terrorists have said that Pakistan would be in trouble if the Taliban took over again in Kabul. Equally, past decisions have put Pakistan at cross-purposes with the anti-Taliban elements in Afghanistan called the Northern Alliance.

Both the drone and “apology” issues have to be recalibrated away from the high passion of the various state and non-state actors in Pakistan. Regaining mutual confidence — which should be properly anointed by suitable assistance to Pakistan to save its economy from going belly-up — is the goal in the achievement of which the Bonn summit should have been a useful locus for Pakistan. Pakistan has broken out of suicidal isolation by a last-minute bout of sanity. Both parliament and the military should step back and see what they did and how they could have done things differently, especially given that in the end Pakistan got neither an apology from the Americans, nor a halt to the drone attacks.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17th, 2012.]]>
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