US President Barack Obama on Monday gathered top national security and intelligence staff for his regular review of Afghan and Pakistan strategy, amid suggestions of fresh tensions with Islamabad. The talks, in the secure Situation Room of the White House, went ahead amid a rumbling US disagreement with Islamabad on the fight against militants in the volatile Afghan-Pakistan border region. At Obama’s side in the talks were Defense Secretary Robert Gates, UN ambassador Susan Rice, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon and James Clapper, his director of national intelligence.
Vice President Joe Biden, top Afghan war General David Petraeus and the US ambassadors to Pakistan and Afghanistan joined the session via secure video-link, the White House said. Obama is beginning to reach the point when he must consider recommendations by the military for the promised partial withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan which he has demanded from July this year. However, his press spokesman Jay Carney said that Monday’s session was not a “decisional” meeting, but was rather a regular review of US policy.