"Kerry: Pakistan can be better ally against terror": What does he mean by that?

Ali_Syed · May 15, 2011, 1:24am

Re: “Kerry: Pakistan can be better ally against terror”: What does he mean by that?

"You have to understand that for a period of time our interests in Pakistan have not converged. The Pakistanis have had a different set of interests about India, a different set of interests about what kind of Afghanistan they want to see. They’re apprehensive about a 350,000 person army being built up in Afghanistan on their border. They have a different interest on nuclear weapons, for instance, and on nuclear policy. All of that has to change.

All of that, I believe, can change. I’ve had some early conversations with high level officials of Pakistan. There’s an indication to me there is an enormous amount of introspection going on and some very deep evaluating within Pakistan. I know for a fact they are thinking of a government inquiry outside of the military. For the first time there is major criticism in Pakistani papers of the intelligence network and military in Pakistan.

So I see this as a time for us to be careful, to be thoughtful, to proceed deliberately but determinedly in order to lay on the table the things that we know have to change. The relationship with the ISI, the double dealing, the attitude and frankly wastefulness of resources towards India. The question of cooperation with respect to Afghanistan.
I see opportunity in all of this to sort of punch a reset button and frankly serve our interests and theirs much more effectively."

Ali_Syed · May 15, 2011, 6:03am

Re: “Kerry: Pakistan can be better ally against terror”: What does he mean by that?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/us/politics/15diplo.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hpw

**The Obama administration has said nothing about the Pakistani government’s criticisms, in the hope that they are designed to alleviate public anger and the Pakistani military’s embarrassment that American forces attacked the Bin Laden compound without being detected. Mr. Donilon and other senior administration officials declined to be interviewed about the administration’s strategy.

The American reticence stems in part from the reality that such ultimatums have been sent before — most recently after the arrest of Raymond Davis, a Central Intelligence Agency contractor who shot two Pakistanis during what he said was a robbery. Pakistan has repeatedly called the administration’s bluff and revealed the threats as hollow.** The United States relies heavily on transit routes in Pakistan to supply American troops in Afghanistan, and any move to cut off aid would probably lead Pakistan to close the supply routes, as it has done during previous disputes.

Mr. Kerry will also raise an issue that the administration has refused to discuss publicly: Pakistan’s escalating production of nuclear fuel to expand its arsenal of 100 or so nuclear weapons. Members of Congress, in closed sessions, have complained that since the $3 billion American annual aid to the Pakistani military is fungible, the United States is effectively helping bankroll the fastest-growing nuclear arsenal in the world. “It will jeopardize funding if that continues,” Mr. Kerry said.

In fact, according to some officials, the administration is on alert for signs that Pakistan’s reaction to the Bin Laden raid could be an expansion, or repositioning, of its nuclear forces.

“The very public discussion that the raid showed the nuclear assets could be vulnerable to seizure may lead them to disperse them, or increase their number,” said one United States official involved in monitoring Pakistan’s nuclear program. “It’s a significant worry because the more they spread it around, the higher the risk something gets loose.”

khoji · May 15, 2011, 12:30pm

Re: “Kerry: Pakistan can be better ally against terror”: What does he mean by that?

Above sources say that Kerry’s main concern is about nuclear weapons getting into wrong hands. I did not read anywhere that America would try to eliminate nuclear program.

Secondly, this nuke issue has nothing to do with US wanting Pak to do more on war against terrorism. And that is the question I had asked earlier.

I will attempt to answer my own question. What America wants from Pakistan in this war?

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2011/05/15/rift_with_pakistan_over_commando_raid_appears_to_deepen/
Kerry said he would tell Pakistan that there needed to be “a real demonstration of commitment’’ to fighting terror groups in the next few months.
I think he is talking about Sirajuddin Haqqani’s network in Northern Waziristan, and Pakistan’s refusal to act against him due to lack of resources.

So far that’s all I have been able to find about what they want.

Ali_Syed · May 15, 2011, 2:11pm

Re: “Kerry: Pakistan can be better ally against terror”: What does he mean by that?

I think Kerry will try to use blackmailing as a source of leverage on this tour…

http://www.dawn.com/2011/05/15/disturbing-evidence-against-pakistan-kerry.html

Disturbing evidence against Pakistan: Kerry

KABUL: US Senator John Kerry says the US relationship with Pakistan is at a “critical moment” because of the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Kerry, chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was speaking Sunday in the Afghan capital. He is visiting both Afghanistan and Pakistan to repair relations following the unilateral strike against bin Laden.

**He said that there was some evidence of Pakistani knowledge of Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan, a finding that he called disturbing.

But he also said that bin Laden’s death may present a new opportunity for reconciliation with the Taliban in Afghanistan.**

Kerry is expected to continue on to Pakistan later today.

La_Parisienne · May 15, 2011, 6:06pm