Gilani warns US against 'negative messaging'

Gilani says any unilateral military action by the US inside Pakistan would be a violation of sovereignty.


Reuters September 27, 2011

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minster Yousaf Raza Gilani warned Washington on Tuesday that continued accusations of playing a double game in the war on militancy only risked fanning anti-Americanism in Pakistan.         

Gilani, speaking in an interview with Reuters, also said any unilateral military action by the United States to hunt down militants of the Haqqani network inside Pakistan would be a violation of his country's sovereignty.

Relations between Washington and Islamabad have deteriorated sharply following last week's blunt allegations by the US joint chiefs of staff that Pakistan's military intelligence agency was linked to militants who carried out a Sept 13 attack on the US embassy in Kabul.

"The negative messaging, naturally that is disturbing my people," Gilani said in the interview.

"If there is messaging that is not appropriate to our friendship, then naturally it is extremely difficult to convince my public. Therefore they should be sending positive messages."

Although Pakistan officially abandoned support for the Taliban after the Sept 11 attacks on the United States in 2001 and allied itself with Washington's "war on terror", analysts say elements of the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) refused to make the doctrinal shift.

In his stunning testimony last week, outgoing Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen bluntly described the Haqqani network, the most violent and effective faction among Taliban militants in Afghanistan, as a "veritable arm" of the ISI.

It was the most serious allegation levelled by Washington against Pakistan since 2001, and the first time it had held Islamabad responsible for an attack against the United States.

Asked how Islamabad would respond if there was a unilateral military operation by the United States inside Pakistan to go after the Haqqanis, Gilani responded: "We are a sovereign country. How can they come and raid in our country?"

He said Pakistan had conveyed to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that such unilateral action "will not be acceptable to Pakistan".

COMMENTS (33)

Akash | 12 years ago | Reply

Very well said John!! Why do I always feel in all these forums that all world talks one language.. or has more or less similar line of thinking but not Pakistanis... why so increasingly isolated and confrontationist.

Observer | 12 years ago | Reply

@Truth-seeker:

"What about the lossses of Pakistan on so called USA war on terror whcih pakistan lost about USD 75 billion so far. "

No one believes these cooked up dollar numbers quoted by Pakistan.

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