‘US to blame if Pakistan fails in war on terror’

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said on Thursday the suspension of $700 million aid by the United States would hamper Pakistan’s ability to fight the ongoing war against terrorism and the US would be responsible for Pakistan’s failure in the war.
A source told Pakistan Today that the minister made these remarks during her briefing to the National Security Committee (NSC) meeting here at Parliament House. “The US Congress has passed a bill to block $700 million in assistance for the Coalition Support Fund to Pakistan. This would affect our ability to fight the ongoing war against terrorism. If we fail in this war, the US will be responsible for this failure because Islamabad cannot win this war alone. We will use the diplomatic channels of our friendly nations to take up this issue with the US authorities to get this decision reversed,” the source quoted the minister as telling the committee members. The NSC meeting took up a two-point agenda – recommendations of the Envoys’ Conference to reevaluate and reassess the country’s relations with US, NATO and ISAF forces in the backdrop of the NATO attacks, and the memogate scandal in detail.
The source said that apart from Khar, the defence secretary also briefed the committee on both subjects, stating that there were verbal agreements between the US and Pakistan on drone attacks, provision of air corridor and logistic support to the US and NATO forces engaged in the war in Afghanistan, but no written agreement was available either with the Defence Ministry or Foreign Ministry. Later, Khar told reporters that following the attack on Pakistani checkposts, relations with the US were put on hold for the time being, and a way forward for the government in this regard would be recommended by the joint sitting of parliament. “We have submitted the input of the Envoys’ Conference to the NSC which were broad in nature and were drafted in light of our national interests and objectives. The NSC will use this input as a working paper and it will make its recommendations, which would be presented to the joint sitting of parliament. After a nod from parliament, the government will be able to take this partnership ahead,” she added.
Asked to comment on the blockade of $700 million in US aid to Pakistan, the minister said Islamabad was less concerned about what the US Congress said and more concerned about what the Pakistani parliament wanted. Asked how many agreements were signed by Islamabad with Washington, the minister said there were two agreements with the US.
“One was about NATO supply routes and the other was military-to-military, which were an arrangement of the Defence Ministry and the defence secretary is briefing the NSC on that,” she added.
RABBANI: Later, briefing reporters on the in-camera proceedings of the committee, NSC Chairman Senator Raza Rabbani said the meeting lasted four hours. He said the committee would use the recommendations of the envoys’ moot as a working paper to build its own recommendations, which would later be produced in parliament for policy formulation.
Asked whether any agreement had been signed by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-led coalition government, Rabbani, after slight hesitation, claimed that the coalition government had signed no agreements and all agreements were made by former regimes.
When asked whether the committee was also briefed on verbal agreements with the US by Pakistan, Rabbani said the Foreign Ministry and Defence Ministry had no record of verbal agreements.
He said the defence secretary had briefed the committee on nine different agreements reached by different governments with the US, NATO and ISAF, and the committee deliberated upon all of them.
“We have asked the defence secretary to submit the text of those agreements so the NSC may be able to propose amendments to those agreements. The secretary will provide those details in the next meeting,” he added.
Rabbani said the committee had decided to bifurcate the memo issue and the post-NATO attacks situation and in future separate meetings would be held for each issue and the next meeting for NATO review would be held on December 24.
“On the memo issue, the committee decided to meet again on December 21. Today, some material was provided to the committee while the foreign secretary and defence secretary have been asked to submit more details in next meeting,” he added.