Hillary helped remove misconceptions: FO

Foreign Office (FO) on Saturday said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Admiral Mike Mullen’s recent visit to Pakistan had helped remove misconceptions and misunderstandings between Islamabad and Washington to a great extent. In her weekly briefing, Foreign Office spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua said during discussions, the leadership of two countries indicated their concerns and now understood each other’s perspective in a better manner. “Pakistan and the US have agreed to continue fighting terrorism, conducting joint operations, sharing information, ensuring return of peace and stability to Afghanistan and facilitating the Afghan-led process for peace and reconciliation,” she added. The FO did not confirm whether the US had handed it over a list of five terrorists as Tehmina said she would not offer any comments on the reported US list.
“I will not go into operational details at this point. We need to focus on the larger picture,” she said when asked about the US list during a weekly briefing. She described bilateral engagement in Islamabad during Clinton’s visit as an attempt at course correction. According to ABC News, Washington has sought intelligence back-up from Islamabad on five terrorists: Osama bin Laden’s deputy Ayman al Zawahiri, Afghan Taliban commander Mullah Omar, operational head of the Haqqani network Sirajuddin Haqqani and senior al Qaeda operatives Ilyas Kashmiri and Atiya Abdel Rehman, the Libyan operations chief of the network.
Asked whether the course correction would result in Pakistan acting against the Haqqani network, Tehmina again refused to be drawn into specifics, stating that Pakistan had been bearing the blowback effect of the war on terror almost daily. “Pakistan is committed to eliminating terrorism and extremism from its soil,” she added. “Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US have formed a core group to promote the process of peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan. Two meetings of the group have already taken place and the third one would be held by the end of next month in Kabul,” she added. The FO spokeswoman said there was a realisation within the US that Pakistan had to play a very important facilitating role in any process of reconciliation and peace in Afghanistan. “Pakistan fully stands by Afghan people in this endeavour,” she added.
Tehmina said it became evident during Clinton’s visit that the US wished to work with Pakistan and was ready to address its concerns. “The US wants to take fully on board Pakistan’s core national interests and it underscored the concept of partnership and equality during these talks,” she said, adding that the two sides also agreed to intensify bilateral engagement as well as to recommence preparatory work for strategic dialogue process. The spokeswoman said dates for the strategic dialogue would be decided as soon as the preparatory work was done. To a question, she said the two countries agreed that there would be greater transparency and information sharing in the context of joint operations.
On drone attacks, she said, “The issue has been intensively discussed with the US and during yesterday’s meeting, the Pakistani leadership conveyed the concerns of people of Pakistan about drone attacks and violation of sovereignty as reflected in the unanimous resolution of parliament.” She said the US fully appreciated Pakistan’s contribution and sacrifices in the war against terror. She said the 12th round of talks between Pakistan and India on Siachen would begin in New Delhi on Monday. “Defence secretaries of both the countries will attend the meeting,” she said, adding that Pakistan wanted to resolve all outstanding issues with India through the dialogue process. To another query, the spokeswoman said security and safety of Pakistan’s strategic installations was that of international standards and there should be no doubt in that regard.