Pakistan hasn’t approved drone strikes after US apology: Sherry

Pakistan has not given any go-ahead to the United States for launching drone attacks on its territory following the US’ expression of apology over last year’s Salala incident, Ambassador Sherry Rehman said in an interview with CNN.
She said that the unilateral air strikes into Pakistani territory violate humanitarian and international law. “It’s seen as against the law. And it continues to challenge a relationship that can actually accomplish a lot more on the ground than we are doing today in eliminating terrorism.”
Commenting on the complexities of the drone programme, the envoy said it tests the bilateral relationship at every juncture. “We honestly feel that there are ‘better’ ways now of eliminating al Qaeda, which has been done with our help. We have been doing that consistently, ridding high and medium value targets consistently. We’re the heavy lifters in this relationship,” Sherry told CNN.
The ambassador observed that the drones might appear as a precise tool to target militants, but the damage they do in terms of radicalising people and challenging the bilateral relationship is much greater that the benefits. The drone strikes are not only radicalising a large population, but are also seen as predatory, she said.
The CNN said the top Pakistani diplomat in Washington played an instrumental role in resolving the dispute over November 26, 2011 US strikes on Salala posts, which had caused a sharp decline in bilateral relations and closure of the key Pakistani overland NATO supply routes into landlocked Afghanistan.
In the interview, Sherry reiterated Pakistan’s serious concerns over drone strikes on its territory. She said Pakistan considered the drone programme counterproductive and said “the concerns over drones can’t just be brushed aside.”
On the last week’s expression of remorse by the United States over the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in the American cross-border attacks on the Salala posts – the envoy said it has certainly opened the way for constructive discussions on bilateral relations. But “no, we have not agreed on anything,” she said, and added that many conversations were yet to happen. “As I said, the apology has opened the space for an opportunity where we can have constructive conversations on several strategic issues,” Sherry told CNN’s Christiana Amanpour.
The diplomat argued that her country’s unrivalled sacrifices and counterterrorism successes must be recognised. “We need to understand that Pakistan is looking for some amount of strategic sympathy in the losses we have incurred over the last 10 years. We didn’t have more than one suicide bombing before 2001.”
“So it’s not that we are saying that all our troubles or volatility, even within parts of Pakistan, have come as a result of joining force with the United States and NATO. But much of it has. I think there needs to be less tough talk in public.”
Sherry also underscored the importance of bridging the trust gap between the two countries. “There’s a trust deficit, that you know about, between the two countries, and we must work to build that, because both people are quite able to work together.”
Responding to a question about American perceptions on sentencing of Shakil Afridi – the Pakistani doctor employed by the CIA in hunt for Osama bin Laden before the al Qaeda chief’s death in an American cross-border operation last year – the ambassador noted the doctor had no knowledge about the goal that he was working for. He knew he was contracting with a foreign intelligence agency, but he had no knowledge that he was seeking to bring Osama bin Laden in. “So let’s not lionise him,” she said. The envoy said Dr Afridi was known to contract with terrorist outfits. He was even kidnapped by one, and he was in many transactions on the ground, all over the place. “His conviction is really for contracting with one of the terrorist groups that is waging or attempting to attack our soldiers. We’ve had several martyred recently.”
While strongly spelling out Pakistan’s position against terrorism, the ambassador said, “they haunt our own people and our own children, our girl schools, our hospitals, our Sufi shrines. They have bombed our people almost every day, including our police and security services.”