US-Pak relations: PM claims US will refrain from unilateral raids

Gilani says he had been ‘personally assured’ by Hillary Clinton.

LONDON:

Contrary to assertions made by the US government, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said he has received assurances there will be no repeat of the unilateral raid that killed Osama bin Laden, British newspaper the Guardian reported on Thursday.

Gilani’s remarks, in an interview with the paper, opposed comments made by US President Barack Obama and other American officials that US forces would take similar action against other al Qaeda leaders if necessary.

“Since we were sharing information with US and there was a tremendous relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), we could have done a joint operation in Abbottabad, but it didn’t happen. Therefore we had a lot of reservations,” Gilani said.

The prime minister said he had received the assurance personally from the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. In her public statements, however, Clinton
has declared the US would strike unilaterally against other top militants if others did not, according to the Guardian.

On Thursday, however, Gilani said any repeat of the raid would be “totally unacceptable”.

“Public opinion would further aggravate against the US and you cannot fight a war without the support of the masses,” he said in the interview.

He added that another raid would damage “not only our relationship, but also our common objective, to fight against militants. We are fighting a war and if we fail that means that it’s not good for the world. We can’t afford losing.”

After the raid against Bin Laden, the government said it had stopped the US launching drones from its territory. Nevertheless, drone strikes in the tribal areas have continued.

“We don’t allow our bases to be used. They have other bases they use,” Gilani told the Guardian. Asked where those bases were, he replied: “I don’t know. You ask the Americans. This is a question to put to them.”

Gilani deflected questions on some of the other irritants in US-Pakistan relations. On the allegation this month by the US Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, that the government had “sanctioned” the killing of journalist Saleem Shahzad, the prime minister said Mullen should present evidence, adding that he was unaware of whether Mullen had already done so.

On Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) allegations this week that the military, including the ISI, had spent $4m on trying to influence US policy on Kashmir, Gilani claimed he was not sufficiently well informed to comment. He said the same regarding the FBI’s arrest of Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, a Kashmiri separatist lobbyist.

Balancing US with China

On Wednesday night, Gilani told an audience of British and Pakistani business leaders that his country’s most important foreign relationship was with China.

The emphasis on the Chinese relationship has been heightened since the raid on Abbottabad and the cutting of US aid to Pakistan, but Gilani denied Islamabad was playing one world power off against another.

“We want to have relationships with both China and the United States. We don’t want to lose our relationship with the United States,” the prime minister said according to the report.

However, he made it clear there was some way to go  before relations are returned to normal.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 22^nd,  2011.