Pakistan

Af-Pak-US talks in May: Haqqani

Pakistan's ambassador to the US denies reports of Pakistan advising Afghanistan against US partnership.

Express April 30, 2011

WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States Hussain Haqqani said on Saturday that Afghanistan and the US will hold trilateral talks on May 3 to resolve the Afghan conflict while denying media reports about Pakistan advising Afghanistan against cooperation with the US.

“We will have a lot of such stories as we move forward. The key thing is that all three players — the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan — understand that the way forward is: we have to defeat some people in Afghanistan and we have to engage certain people,” Haqqani said while talking to CNN on the programme called Situation Room.

The Wall Street Journal’s report cited Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani as saying that the US has failed both the countries and China is a better partner which is Pakistan’s “all weather” friend.

However, Haqqani, in response to this citation, said, “China is definitely an all-weather friend of Pakistan. We have been friends of China since 1949. We were the country that helped the United States and China come close together… We have never looked upon the United States and China as rivals for our friendship.”

Haqqani also made it clear that Pakistan does not want to fully depend on American assistance, but it cannot be totally cut. “The 9/11 incident happened because America turned its back on Pakistan and Afghanistan, ignored what was happening there.”

Referring to the media report, he said that it was clear that internal Afghan politics is being played out in American newspapers.

COMMENTS (6)

chandran | 13 years ago | Reply what is this term AF-PAK? it means Afganisthan another province of pakisthan by using the pashtun proxmity. The pakisthan will get more geographical advantage otherwise pakisthan became small geogrphically.

pl/sql | 13 years ago | Reply For a moment , I was wondering why this newspaper was publishing what a terrorist outfit's boss said. Then I realized this Haqani was a different one. Just imagine how confused the Americans might be with this name. LOL

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Mariya | 13 years ago | Reply Why deny the most sensible move in decades!!! Kick USA out like Vietnam did years ago and see how Taliban disappear. Ok give it a shot..what do we have to lose now? America made sure we get ruled by dictators for years by supporting them. We provided America bases to attack our neighbor Afghanistan and still we are bad. We are paying for supporting attacks on Afghanistan and now losing our loved ones in suicide blast. I keep hearing about American aid but I have not seen one school or hospital constructed from it. Where is the aid going? How many dollars it take to build a school or hospital? or lets say a medical machine in government hospitals? I am sure America would love to fly its flag on projects it has started in Pakistan from the billions in aid but yet we see nothing. BECAUSE the aid is used to buy dictators and corrupt leaders who will support America illegal activities. This aid is used to support the 500+ Raymond davis in Pakistan. Imran khan has constructed one cancer hospital and the world can see it so why are we not seeing anything made from the billions of American aid?? If America was sincerely using those so called billions in aid, we would have seen one small hospital BUT NOO..not one. Let’s stop fooling ourselves that the sky will fall on us if America and UK stop the aid. We are in a lot of mess and it can not get worse so let’s take a sensible step and look for new partnerships. Partnerships were the developed country(china.turkey/iran) helps us build damns and ports. Yes China is helping us because it sees benefit in building ports too for their use. At least they are building it for us unlike America which claims to have given us billion and yet nothing solid to see. I repeat not a single school, college, hospital, damn or port. Chalo motorway hei bana deta and we punjabis would have voted for them like we did for nawaz shareef!!!(just a joke) I have Americans and Chinese living in my neighborhood and trust me I see the difference. I am not saying that all Americans are bad but the Chinese are way better. Ok well may be because they are building us a damn..i can see it and thus value the partnership. I don’t see anything constructive done by Americans except raymond davis on Lahore streets. Trust me we under estimate ourselves a lot. God has blessed us with all kind of resources..coal, natural gas, semi precious stones, copper etc. We need a partner to help us utilize this and not a partner who wants our help to bomb Afghanistan and north waziristan. See the locals in South waziristan stood up to the talibans and so did we by voting for an army operation. We will eliminate Taliban and extremist from among us as long we end our psyco-relationship with America.

Mehmood Qureshi | 13 years ago | Reply Ironic. Musharraf still looking over Haqqani's shoulder. Why is the military dictator's plaque still there?

neel123 | 13 years ago | Reply " Haqqani also made it clear that Pakistan does not want to fully depend on American assistance, but it cannot be totally cut." well, this is what is known as Pakistan wants to have its cake and eat it too ...... ! It wants to have best of both the world, while its so called strategic interests are in direct conflict with rest of the world.

Noble Tufail | 13 years ago | Reply what is this term AF-PAK?

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