Khar-Clinton meeting aimed at improving ties: US State Dept

Spokesperson Mark Toner says both leaders will meet on Thursday on sidelines of 2012 London Somalia Conference.


Huma Imtiaz February 23, 2012

WASHINGTON: US State Department spokesperson Mark Toner confirmed that the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Thursday on the sidelines of the 2012 London Somalia Conference.

Speaking to reporters at the daily press briefing, Toner said that both leaders had many things to discuss. “Our goal remains to put this relationship back on track, you know, to try to put some of the problems that we have had in the relationship, some of the challenges behind us and move productively forward.”

In response to a story by Reuters on Afghan officials meeting with members of the Taliban in Quetta, Toner said that he did not have any information about these meetings.

When asked if President Karzai was taking an active role in response to being reportedly bypassed on earlier reconciliation talks between the Taliban and the US, Toner denied it and said that the meetings between US Special Representative for Af-Pak Marc Grossman and Afghan President Hamid Karzai were an indication that the US was consulting with him.

He added that President Karzai was supportive of the process, and said that at some point the US would like to step away and “have it be an Afghan-to-Afghan reconciliation process.”

The State Department spokesperson was also asked about Secretary Clinton’s earlier statements about Pakistan taking action against certain groups present in Pakistan, to which he said, “We've been very clear about our red lines and, indeed, the Afghan government's red lines for those Taliban who would participate in any reconciliation process. And so the groups that we're talking about, that the Secretary raised her concerns about operating in Pakistan, are very clearly not part of this process and not interested. They're carrying out violent attacks against Afghans and also international entities in Afghanistan.”

COMMENTS (2)

Pakistan politics | 12 years ago | Reply

Why dont we understand the solution to our problems is to get out of American fake War on terrorism, Our alliance is not natural with US, she has its own motives and goals and we have others

John B | 12 years ago | Reply

London Somalia meeting is regarding the al-queda and al-shabba alliance and coming out of the meeting hopefully Sec. Clinton will be in good mood to hear what Khar has to say.

Currently the US perception is that there are two parallel governments in Pakistan and the civilian side is too weak to offer anything tangible due to its own domestic problems. Irony.

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