WASHINGTON: US Special Representative to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke said on Wednesday those who were involved in the 9/11 incident and the Mumbai attacks, and the people who seized Swat all come from the same roots and all are located in the same area.
Talking to an American TV after a five-hour-long meeting of the committee set up by US President Barack Obama to review US policy on Pakistan and Afghanistan, Holbrooke said the Taliban are resurgent. They have an increasingly large sanctuary in Pakistan and the events in Swat only highlight that.
Besides Richard Holbrooke, the meeting was attended by Gen Petraeus, Bruce Riedel, Undersecretary of Defence Michele Flournoy and others. Commenting on the law and order situation in Pakistan, Holbrooke said he went up to Bajaur last week but was unable to land because of the fighting over there. Citizens of Peshawar, a city of millions, felt being under siege and they couldn’t walk their dogs anymore. They couldn’t drive to Islamabad without risking their lives, he added.
Holbrooke further said he also went to faraway Lahore. Even there the Pakistanis were traumatised, in a state of real shock at the fall of Swat, which is, after all, a resort they all went to for vacations.
He said: “We’re troubled and confused, in a sense, about what happened in Swat, because it is not an encouraging trend. Previous ceasefires have broken down. And we do not want to see territory ceded to the bad guys, and the people who took over Swat are very bad people.”
When asked President Zardari has said repeatedly that he was committed to getting rid of these terrorist sanctuaries in the western part of his country but how convinced are you that his military and his intelligence agencies, which have in the past supported the Taliban, are committed to supporting him in this, Holbrooke replied: “This is a very important question which the US was exploring in depth.”
“I’ve rarely seen in my years in Washington an issue which is so hotly disputed internally by experts and intelligence officials as the one you raised.” he added.
He further said: “Let me just say that we are engaged in very intense discussions with the military leadership of Pakistan and the ISI about this particular issue. So it’s a little early to come to final conclusions. The military will be represented on Foreign Minister Qureshi’s delegation, and you can be sure that this issue will be pursued at very high levels in our dialogue next week.”
In addition, Holbrooke continued, the Pakistani government and the Afghan government both sent a message to President Obama, asking if they could form similar parallel teams and participate in the review, making input and getting ideas from us. And both will meet with Secretary of State Clinton and inter-agency teams as we work together with them to formulate this review. Richard Holbrooke, replying to another question, said the victory in Afghanistan, as defined in purely military terms, was not achievable, and he could not stress that too highly. What the US was looking for was the definition of its vital national security interests, which was a manifestation of a new, intense, engaged diplomacy designed to put Afghanistan and Pakistan into a larger regional context and move forward to engage other countries in the effort to stabilise this incredibly volatile region.
He said only denial of the Afghan territory to al-Qaeda was not anything beyond an interim necessity. After all, al-Qaeda was operating freely in the tribal areas of western Pakistan. To a question about Indo-Pak relations, Richard Holbrooke said the Pakistan Army has been focused on India for decades. And most of us believe that they ought to reorient their attention much more to the west. But in order to do that there has to be much more confidence between Pakistan and India.
The terrorist attack in Mumbai, he added, was conducted by very shrewd, ruthless murderers. The terrorists who launched that attack were trying to upset the improving relations between Pakistan and India. But the Indians did not play into their hands. The Indians restrained themselves. And the Pakistanis did not move troops to the border. But we have got to understand that to get the Pakistanis to focus on the west, we have to have a reduction in tensions between India and Pakistan, he said.
APP adds: Pakistani and Afghan foreign ministers will head their countries’ delegations here next week for talks with senior Obama administration officials as part of discussions to formulate a regional strategy review, US special envoy Richard Holbrooke said on Wednesday.
“Both delegations, the Pakistanis, headed by their foreign minister, (Shah Mehmud) Qureshi, and the Afghans, headed by their foreign minister, (Rangeen) Spanta, will both be coming to Washington next week.
“They will both meet with Secretary of State (Hillary) Clinton and inter-agency teams as we work together with them to formulate this review,” he told Public Broadcasting Service channel.
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