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U.K. Minister seeks to soothe Pakistan’s ruffled feathers

ISLAMABAD: British Foreign Secretary David Miliband here on his first overseas tour at a time of fresh tensions between Pakistan and the U.S., attempted to soothe ruffled feathers by emphasising the “strong partnership” between Islamabad and the West as the right way forward to combat terrorism.

Mr. Miliband, who arrived here from Kabul, met President Pervez Musharraf and Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri on Thursday amid a flurry of statements from Washington hinting at U.S. military strikes in Pakistan’s north-west tribal areas against suspected Al-Qaeda safe havens. The Washington Post on Thursday quoted a Pentagon official saying if there was specific information “to strike a blow to protect the American people”, the U.S military would do it.

State Department Undersecretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns said at a Senate hearing that the U.S. reflex was to work with Pakistan. But, he also said, “given the primacy of the fight against Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, if we have in the future certainty of knowledge, then of course the United States would always have the option of taking action on its own,”

Pakistan is bristling at these and other similar statements by different Bush Administration officials over the last few days, and the very first question to Mr. Miliband at his press conference here with Mr. Kasuri was what stand the Gordon Brown Government would take if the U.S. carried out unilateral military strikes in Pakistani territory.

Mr. Miliband responded by referring to the “strong partnership” between all countries with troops in Afghanistan, including the U.S, Britain and Pakistan.

“Our approach, and I think, the statements in Washington yesterday from reasonably high-up emphasised this, that the right way forward is one based on partnership between different countries.”

Offering further assurance, he said that “in every aspect” of his discussions here, “we’ve been discussing what we can do together, not me lecturing Pakistan or vice versa”. Mr. Miliband also stressed what Islamabad repeatedly says, that nearly 1,000 Pakistani soldiers and civilians have been killed in terrorist attacks, and that there is a strong self-interest in Pakistan to combat terrorism.

He also said his Government shared Pakistan’s view that any counter-terrorism strategy must combine economic, political, social and security elements.

This is an approach that Pakistan tried in North Wazirisitan through a controversial peace deal with the tribals in September 2006.

But it did not work with the tribals not keeping their part of the deal. As Pakistan sent in more troops into North Waziristan earlier this month, days before the release of the US National Intelligence Estimate that referred to Al-Qaeda “safe havens” in the tribal areas, the militants announced they were pulling out of the agreement altogether.

Mr. Kasuri said Pakistan would continue with this approach to “wean away the majority of the people in the tribal areas and isolate the extremist” minority. The Pakistan government says it has kept the doors for negotiations open with the North Waziristan tribals.

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