Official: Pakistan-US trust key to counter terror

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistani and U.S. officials called Tuesday for more trust between their countries to counter al-Qaida and the Taliban, but Pakistan's foreign minister reiterated his government's opposition to American airstrikes on its soil.

U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke and Adm. Mike Mullen of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff were visiting Pakistan after President Barack Obama announced plans to reinvigorate the war in Afghanistan by sending more troops to the region and boosting aid to Pakistan to help it combat militants on its soil.

Pakistani leaders have welcomed billions of dollars in additional assistance, but Obama's insistence that the money won't come without conditions - no "blank check" - has rankled the government and underscored a trust deficit between the two camps.

"We can only work together if we respect each other and trust each other," Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said during a joint news conference.

It was a sentiment echoed by Mullen, who said he was committed to improving the relationship.

"I think it's important for us to seek a surplus of trust (instead of) a deficit of trust," he said.

Pakistan's government points to the deaths of hundreds of Pakistani troops battling insurgents along the Afghan frontier as evidence of its commitment. But U.S. officials imply that the country's Inter Services Intelligence spy agency still has ties to some militant groups.

Mullen told reporters later Tuesday that there were "challenges" related to the ISI's past support for militants, "and I think it's important that that support end."

Pakistan denies the allegation.

"Pakistan is committed in eliminating extremism from the society, for which it needs unconditional support by the international community in the fields of education, health, training and provision of equipment for fighting terrorism," President Asif Ali Zardari said in a statement after meeting the envoys.

In a later interview with U.S. reporters traveling with Holbrooke, Zardari described allegations that the ISI had helped the Taliban stage attacks in Afghanistan "a supposition."

Pakistan faces rising terrorist attacks on its soil by Islamist militants opposed to its alliance with the United States.

Holbrooke said the violence, including a Taliban takeover of the Swat region and commando-style attacks in the eastern city of Lahore on a police academy and the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team, had persuaded Pakistani leaders of the need to fight back.

"There's been a sea-change in attitudes here, and I think this is going to push the U.S. and Pakistan closer together in a common cause," he said.

But many Pakistanis blame that partnership - rather than the militants - for damaging the nation's security, a sentiment fanned by pro-Taliban religious parties, even from within the broadly pro-Western government.

A government minister on Tuesday accused the U.S. of plotting to "destroy Pakistan." NATO was in Afghanistan to "neutralize Iran and contain China" and make India a regional superpower, Science and Technology Minister Azam Khan Swati said.

People in Pakistan's militancy-torn northwest would "never succumb to the pressure of foreign forces," he said in a statement circulated by the government. "Let us not sell our country and destroy ourselves for $10 billion or any amount."

Many Pakistanis protest U.S. missile strikes on militant targets in the northwest, and the government has repeatedly requested they be stopped because they feed extremism.

Days ago, a senior Pakistani Taliban commander warned his group would carry out two suicide bombings per week in Pakistan unless the U.S. shelves the drone-fired missiles.

Zardari told the American reporters that U.S. officials have denied to him news reports that the missile strike zone was being widened beyond the northwest. "We are assured that those are reports not based on facts," the president said.

Many analysts suspect the two countries have a secret deal allowing the strikes, which American officials say have killed some top militant leaders. But in discussing the missile strikes, Pakistan's foreign minister said Tuesday, "There's a gap between us and them."

Qureshi further said Pakistan had "red lines" that should not be crossed, but would specified its objection to any sort of U.S. ground operation on its territory.

Asked whether the U.S. could simply hand over its Predator drones to the Pakistanis so they could carry out the missile strikes, Mullen did not directly answer, but said the Americans were eager to share counterinsurgency techniques and lessons learned from the Iraq war with their Pakistani counterparts.
MyWay

Hey! "In God We Trust" everyone else pays CASH.