With a firm ‘no’ by Islamabad to the calls from Washington and its allies to participate in the Bonn Conference, the United States has now focused its attention on preventing the collapse of its relations with Pakistan and save the alliance from a breakup and Requested China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to play a mediatory role. With the help of its allies, the UK, Germany and others as well as some Muslim states, the US administration has tried to persuade Pakistan to participate in the Bonn conference on security in Afghanistan scheduled for today (Monday), but to no avail. “The US and its allies have so far come up with none of these things that could lessen the deep anger in the Pakistani people as well as the ranks of the armed forces, and hence the stalemate continues with business between the two states coming to a standstill on almost all fronts,” said a Pakistani official here on Sunday, requesting anonymity.
“The intelligence cooperation is zero, military ties have suffered greatly, diplomatic relations are restricted to a few phone calls and everything has almost stopped,” he said. “In order to prevent the breakup of the alliance with Pakistan, the US has sought the help of close friends of Pakistan such as China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but their response is not yet clear,” he said. Another Pakistani official, on anonymity, confirmed that the US was pressing Islamabad to maintain counter-terrorism cooperation and sought the help of friendly states.
