US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is likely to arrive here on October 20 (Thursday) for a two-day visit aimed at putting the strained Pakistan-US relations back on track and rectifying the damage done to bilateral ties by strong anti-Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) statements by American officials accusing it of sponsoring terrorism in Afghanistan. As the top US diplomat lands here later this week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has put off his visit to Islamabad, which was also scheduled for later this week.
A diplomat confirmed the postponement of the Iranian president’s visit but said it had nothing to do with Clinton’s visit and was only a matter of working out the schedule of the Iranian leader, who would now visit Pakistan some other time in the near future. Iran and the US are currently engaged in a serious row over the Obama administration’s allegations against Tehran of devising a plot to kill the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington.
The diplomat said that during her visit to Islamabad, Clinton would pick up the discussion from where US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman left it. Grossman visited Islamabad a few days ago and held meetings with Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership on prospects of peace talks with the powerful Taliban-linked militant group Haqqani network. “Clinton’s visit is a great opportunity for the two countries to normalise their ties,” the diplomat said.
Before Grossman’s visit both sides were not communicating via formal diplomatic channels and the only discussions being held were through secret channels between the defence officials of the two countries. This fact lends further importance to the secretary of state’s visit. Clinton will meet President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani during her two-day stay in Islamabad and hold talks with them on ways to improve bilateral ties and revive full counter-terrorism cooperation.
“[Clinton’s] visit to Islamabad will help Pakistani officials know how serious the Obama is about holding peace talks with the Haqqani network and other Taliban groups and in light of that, Islamabad could devise its strategy for a possible role of mediator between the two sides,” the diplomat said. He said Pakistani officials would come up with a strong demand for the US to restore military aid to Islamabad and to speed up the flow of assistance under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) as well.
“India’s growing influence in Afghanistan and Islamabad’s objections to that would also be brought to the knowledge of Clinton,” he said.
Hillary Clinton due as Ahmadinejad postpones visit
