BBC News – Pakistan officials ‘harass’ US diplomats

Friday, 22 June 2012. Rising obstruction of US envoys by officials in Pakistan is “significantly impairing” the work of US personnel there, a state department report says.

The findings said 2011 interference by Pakistani officials reached “new levels of intensity”.

The US raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound and a Nato air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers were identified as turning points.

The report is strikingly blunt. Events of 2011 have had such an impact on relations between Washington and Islamabad that US diplomats in Pakistan are struggling to do their jobs. Meddling officials have long been a frustration, but in asking for the concerns to be raised in continuing dialogue, the state department is hoping that Pakistan will cut them some slack.

The US feels Pakistan should be more pro-active in combating militants, but it must balance its frustration with the need to keep a military ally. This report is yet another sign that in Washington, patience with Pakistan is wearing thin.

Pakistan withdrew military co-operation in the wake of the deadly November air strike, and correspondents say it marked a change in relations between the two countries.

The report, by the state department’s inspector general, acknowledged that the Pakistani government had previously interfered with US officials on its soil.

However, it said the problem had become much worse and recommended that the issue should be taken up by the US with Pakistan at the highest levels of government.

“Official Pakistani obstructionism and harassment, an endemic problem in Pakistan, has increased to the point where it is significantly impairing mission operations and program implementation,” the state department review said.

It described the harassment as “deliberate, wilful and systematic” and said examples of the obstruction included delays in getting visas, holding up shipments for construction projects and aid programmes, and surveillance of employees.

The report also claimed US officials were being singled out more than other international diplomats.

“While other diplomatic missions have experienced similar treatment, the United States is clearly the principal target,” the report said.

The report was based on visits to the US missions in the Pakistani cities of Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar, and Lahore.

It describes the raid on Bin Laden’s compound as a double embarrassment for the government, saying it was evidence of “both Pakistani government incompetence and its inability to detect or defend against a military intervention”.

“Events of the past year have rocked the US-Pakistani relationship and fundamentally altered the assumptions on which US engagement with Pakistan has been based since 2009,” it added.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18545708

Dawn – Taliban warn Pakistan lawmakers over Nato supplies

Dera Ismail Khan, 26 March 2012. The Taliban on Sunday threatened to attack Pakistani lawmakers and their families if they support allowing Nato to resume shipping supplies through the country to troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Pakistan closed its Afghan border crossings to Nato in November in retaliation for American airstrikes that accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan’s parliament is scheduled to begin debate Monday on a revised relationship with the US that could lead to the border being reopened.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan accused Pakistani officials of acting like slaves for the US and said allowing Nato supplies to resume would be “shameful and unacceptable.”

“These parliamentarians must know that in such case, none of them will be safe in their homes,” Ahsan told The Associated Press. “We will start attacking all the parliamentarians and their families.”

Ahsan also said militants would “publicly slaughter” drivers ferrying Nato supplies.

The US is eager to get the supplies moving again because it has had to spend much more money shipping goods by an alternative route that runs through Central Asia.

The supply line through Pakistan will also be key to trucking out equipment as the US seeks to withdraw most of its combat forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Pakistan would also benefit from patching up relations because it needs US assistance to help keep its struggling economy afloat. The US has given Pakistan billions of dollars in aid since 2001 to enlist its support in fighting Islamist militants, but the relationship has been plagued by mistrust.

A Pakistani parliamentary commission tasked with proposing new guidelines for the relationship between the two countries last week demanded an end to American drone attacks and an apology for the airstrikes that killed Pakistani troops.

The commission also recommended that the Pakistani government charge Nato more for shipments through the country if it allows them to resume. The parliament is scheduled to begin debate on these points Monday.

Washington has expressed regret for the border incident but avoided a formal apology. US officials were reportedly preparing to apologize last month but had to postpone the plan after US soldiers burned copies of the Quran in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama apologized for that, bring criticism from political opponents.

High-level meetings between the two countries were mostly put on hold following the airstrikes, but lately they have started to pick up.

On Sunday, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari met with Marc Grossman, the US special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, on the sidelines of a conference in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, the US said.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is scheduled to meet Obama during a meeting in Seoul, South Korea, on Tuesday.

The Pakistani army, and to a lesser extent the civilian government, will ultimately decide whether to restore ties with the US, but parliament could influence the decision.

Analysts say placing the issue before lawmakers is an attempt to give the government and the army some political cover, so they can claim support of the country before quietly reopening the supply route.

Opposition lawmakers have indicated they may not back the proposed new terms with the US.

“If the government wants the parliament to provide guidance on certain issues and situations, then we are ready to, but the government has to convince us, because its track record regarding two previous resolutions proved to be very bad,” Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, the leader of the opposition in parliament, said Saturday.

Parliament passed a resolution last May recommending Pakistan cut off Nato supplies if the US didn’t stop drone strikes in the country. The missile attacks continued, as did the Nato supplies.

The drone strikes are unpopular among Pakistanis and have long been publicly opposed by the Pakistani army and government as a violation of the country’s sovereignty. They also maintain that the attacks fan support for militancy even as they kill insurgents.

The issue is muddied by the fact that in private, the army has approved at least some of the strikes and provided intelligence on them, raising questions over whether they technically violate the sovereignty of the country. American officials rarely talk about the program in public.

http://www.dawn.com/2012/03/26/taliban-warn-pakistan-lawmakers-over-nato-supplies.html

Dawn – US, Pakistan exploring terms of engagement

Our Correspondent

Washington, 15 Maart 2012. The United States and Pakistan explore new terms of engagement as they contemplate various options for rebuilding a relationship which has deteriorated rapidly since January 2011.

“We will continue to engage where we even have legitimate concerns and disagreements,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in her address to the Global Chiefs of Mission Conference in Washington on Tuesday.

“I appreciate Secretary Clinton’s words of engaging despite differences,” said Pakistan’s Ambassador Sherry Rehman, when asked for comments on the secretary’s statement. “We hope to seek parliament’s views on the terms of re-engagement very soon.”

While Secretary Clinton focused on the need for staying engaged with Pakistan, Ambassador Rehman tried to downplay media reports that Islamabad and Washington had reached an agreement on drone strikes or on reopening Nato supply routes.

Known as the Ground Lines of Communication (GLOC), the routes bring supplies for US and Nato forces in Afghanistan via Torkham and Chaman borders. The GLOC carries nearly half the supplies of coalition forces in Afghanistan at one-tenth the cost of air supply.

“There is no question of anyone cutting a deal on anything behind Parliament’s back, whether it is drones or the GLOC.”

She said that in a series of recent meetings with US officials and lawmakers, Pakistan also stressed the need for discontinuing drone strikes because Islamabad believed that a large number of civilians were also killed in those attacks.

While the United States has indicated that it may agree to involve Pakistan in the decision making process, it is not willing to discontinue the drone strikes because it believes they have been very effective in eliminating key Al Qaeda leaders.

Instead, of settling the drone or GLOC issues first, Pakistan seems more interested in defining the future parameters of a bilateral relationship.  These were some of the issues that Secretary Clinton identified as “legitimate concerns and disagreements”.

Ambassador Rehman insisted that the review had to be completed before Pakistan and the US start sorting out the issues that divide them.

“All Pakistani principals are in lock-step on that. This is the new Pakistan and we work like all democracies, with full consultation and openness,” she said.

http://www.dawn.com/2012/03/15/us-pakistan-exploring-terms-of-engagement.html

Dawn – US committed to ‘mutually respectful’ Pakistan ties

Washington, 21 January 2012. The United States “remains committed to a strong, mutually respectful” relationship with Pakistan and Washington’s civilian assistance for the South Asian country has not been affected in the aftermath of the November 26 strikes on Pakistani border posts, the State Department said on Friday.

“We consider bilateral US civilian assistance to be an important component of that relationship and believe it can help Pakistan become a more prosperous, stable, and democratic state, which serves the national interests of both the United States and Pakistan,” the Office of Spokesperson Victoria Nuland said in response to a question taken at the daily briefing.

“Civilian assistance to Pakistan continues and has not been interrupted since the tragic November 26 incident,” the spokesperson noted.

The November 26 attacks on Pakistani check posts claimed lives of two dozen Pakistani soldiers, angering the Pakistani nation and the government.

After the incident, Islamabad closed Nato supply routes and initiated a full review of ties with the United States, which is nearing its completion.

The State Department also noted that since the passage of the Kerry-Lugar-Berman legislation in October 2009, the US government has disbursed $2.2 billion in civilian assistance, including approximately $550 million in emergency humanitarian assistance.

“In FY 2011 specifically, we disbursed approximately $855 million (not including any emergency humanitarian assistance).

Our non-humanitarian civilian assistance funds are spent in five priority sectors: energy, economic growth, stabilization of the border regions, education, and health.

Notably, in 2011 the people of the United States supported the construction of 210 kilometres of road in Fata and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, funded the world’s largest Fulbright exchange program, and sponsored initiatives promoting private sector growth and civil society development in Pakistan.”

Earlier, spokesperson Nuland shared the view that Pakistan and the United States should pursue broad-based bilateral relations.

It is “completely in sync with our view of the US-Pakistani relationship, that it should be broad and deep, that we have work to do together across the range of issues, whether we’re talking about increasingly open society, economic things, development things, and the full range of security issues.

So we would certainly  share the view that we have a lot to do together across the range of concerns,” she remarked at the daily briefing. (APP)

http://www.dawn.com/2012/01/21/us-vows-mutually-respectful-pakistan-ties.html