News
Friday, April 29, 2011
‘Pakistan, US will work together to resolve Afghan conflict’* Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, says there are people who don’t want to believe that ISI is a partner of the CIA
WASHINGTON: Countering negative media portrayals of Pakistan-US relations, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, has said the two countries would work together towards a resolution of lingering Afghan conflict.
“I am here to confirm that Pakistan has told the US that we will be working together on Afghanistan,” the ambassador told MSNBC in a live interview. Haqqani brushed aside claims made in a report in The Wall Street Journal that Islamabad was asking Kabul to renounce its reliance on the US for a solution to the decade-old conflict in Afghanistan.
“Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States will resolve this as allies and partners. And neither one of us needs to lie to the other,” Haqqani told the channel.
The envoy pointed out that a spate of negative reports and commentaries on the state of Pakistan-US relations are not factual. “The (Pakistan-US) relationship is far more robust than the news reporting makes it out.”
He remarked that “there are people who don’t want to believe that ISI is a partner of the CIA.” Contrary to public perceptions, the two intelligence organisations had been the best of partners, he added.
Pakistan and the United States, who as allies and partners occasionally have differences of opinion, had been working to bridge the gap, he said. In this respect, he cited last week’s visit by Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir to Washington. “We had intense meetings.”
“The CIA and ISI have already worked out an arrangement whereby they will be able to have measures that will enable each other to trust the other on certain specifics. We have overcome the rough patch. The important thing is that Pakistan needs the US and the United States needs Pakistan. We are allies, we are partners and we will work together.”
In answer to a question, he said Raymond Davis issue had been resolved. Sometimes two countries could be friends and partners and yet occasionally have disagreements and differences of opinion, the ambassador said.
“We are allies, we are partners. We do see things slightly differently because our focus is on our region not the world. The United States is a global superpower. It has a global agenda. And sometimes we disagree. And when we disagree, we work it out.”
“We want Afghanistan to be a stable state in our neighbourhood. We want the US to succeed in Afghanistan. We intend to work with the US,” concluded Haqqani. app
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk