News
Sunday, January 09, 2011
US to boost Pak military aid
* Biden is expected to challenge Pakistanis to articulate a long-term strategy for region and specify what assistance they need to move successfully against Taliban
WASHINGTON: The United States will provide Pakistan with more military, intelligence and economic aid, even though some officials feel it is not doing enough to combat militants, The Washington Post reported late Friday.
President Barack Obama’s administration is planning to send more help to Pakistan amid complaints from government officials there that the United States doesn’t understand their security priorities or offer enough help. According to the plan, decided on in last month’s White House Afghanistan war review, the US will offer more military, intelligence and economic support to Pakistan. The Obama administration also plans to intensify efforts to forge a regional peace despite frustration that Pakistani officials aren’t doing enough to fight terrorist groups in the country’s vast tribal areas, it said.
The decision is set to be delivered by Vice President Joe Biden in a planned visit to Pakistan next week, the Post said, citing unidentified administration officials. Biden is expected to meet with army chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani and other top government leaders.
The vice president is expected to challenge the Pakistanis to articulate a long-term strategy for the region and specify what assistance they need to move successfully against Taliban safe havens in areas bordering Afghanistan. Some US military commanders and intelligence officers who have lost patience with Pakistan had proposed allowing US ground forces to launch targeted raids against insurgent strongholds, but Obama and his top national security aides rejected those suggestions, the Post said. They concluded that the United States could not afford to threaten or further alienate a precarious, nuclear-armed country whose cooperation was essential to the administration on several fronts. The conclusions were referred to as unspecified policy “adjustments” in a five-page summary of the December war review that has been made public, according to the Post. Several administration officials told the newspaper the classified review focused on areas where strong efforts were needed, as opposed to new programmes.
Previously, Pakistan has complained that promised US aid - projected to total more than $3 billion in 2011 - has been slow to arrive and requests for military equipment, including helicopters, have not been fulfilled. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, a close US ally who on Friday managed to salvage his shaky coalition government by wooing back the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) that had defected to the opposition, was not immediately available for comment on Saturday. agencies
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk