US aid critical for Pakistan, says Grossman

The United States has refused to assure Pakistan that it would not repeat an Abbottabad-like unilateral operation inside the country as Special Envoy Marc Grossman said that American aid is critical for the country, a private TV channel reported on Thursday.
The special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Marc Grossman in an exclusive interview with the channel said no Pakistani authority had ever demanded to ink a formal agreement with the US on war on terror. Refusing to give any solid assurance on not repeating Abbottabad-style unilateral raid in Pakistan, Grossman said the US was broadening the network of cooperation with Pakistan so that there is minimum possibility of a unilateral action in future. He said it would not be possible to make a joint decision on the transfer of drone technology or raids.
Grossman and CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday night in an effort to mend relations with Pakistan’s civilian and military leaders annoyed over the covert US military operation in which al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad earlier this month. The US special envoy held meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari and army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, while the CIA deputy director met ISI chief General Ahmed Shuja Pasha.
Grossman said the US needed Pakistan to help win the war in Afghanistan. He said Pakistan and the US still had a strong mutual dependence, which was difficult to break. He reiterated that his country respected Pakistan’s sovereignty, adding that the interests of Washington and Islamabad converge in the region. Grossman said the US recognised the sacrifices made by the army and people of Pakistan in the war on terror, adding that the Obama administration was taking a step-by-step approach with Pakistan over different issues.
He also made it clear that not everybody would be reached in Afghanistan as far as reconciliation was concerned and the “terrorists in that country will have to be defeated on the battlefield.” He said the war on terror would go on until Al Qaeda no longer had the capacity to target people worldwide. Asked if funding had a part to play in spreading terrorism, Grossman said terrorism in the region came partly from the narcotics trade in Afghanistan.
He said the CIA still needed Pakistani intelligence agencies for success against terrorists and the officials of US spy agency were worried about the suspension of cooperation by the ISI in the wake of the US Navy SEALs operation in Abbottabad while keeping Pakistan in the dark. The high-level talks between Islamabad and Washington were meant to patch up ties between the two nations in the anti-terrorism campaign and officials privy to the meetings said consultations between the visiting US officials and Pakistani leaders were helpful in bringing the relations back on track.
“The meeting between President Zardari and Grossman was a follow up of US Senator John Kerry’s meeting with the president on May 16,” president’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar said, adding that, “In that meeting the two sides had agreed to put relations back on track.” They also decided that the “relations should go forward on the basis of mutual respect, mutual trust and mutual interest.”
In a brief statement, the ISPR said the US envoy and General Kayani discussed the “future of Pakistan-US engagement concerning the reconciliation process in Afghanistan”. It did not give any more details. “The senior US officials in their meetings discussed the modalities of future cooperation between the two sides in anti-terrorism campaign and especially increasing the level of intelligence sharing for future actions against high-value al Qaeda and Taliban targets,” a senior Pakistani official said.
He said the US envoy also discussed with Pakistani officials the schedule and agenda of a highly-important visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Islamabad, which is expected by the end of this month. Grossman and the CIA deputy chief reached Pakistan at a time when a new survey carried out by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre showed US popularity in Pakistan falling to an all-time low, with just 11 percent of Pakistanis holding a favourable view of the country as well as President Obama.