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Monday, November 28, 2011
US senators call for tough line with Pakistan* Jon Kyl, Dick Durbin say Pakistan needs to understand US financial support for it is dependent upon its cooperation
WASHINGTON: Senior lawmakers suggested Sunday that the US take a harder line with Pakistan, after Islamabad retaliated for NATO’s deadly misfire by closing parts of its border with Afghanistan and demanding the US vacate an airbase.
The comments by Senators Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican, and Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, show how strained Pakistan’s relationship with the US, and Congress specifically, has become in recent months. “There’s a lot of diplomacy that has to occur and it has to be tough diplomacy in the sense that they need to understand that our support for them financially is dependent upon their cooperation with us,” said Kyl, the Senate’s No 2 Republican.
Durbin, the second-ranking Senate Democrat, said Pakistan’s latest move is further evidence that the US must end its military involvement in the region and bring troops home. “As difficult as it is to fight our way thru this diplomatic morass between the incompetence and maybe corruption of Afghanistan and the complicity in parts of Pakistan, our soldiers are caught right in the middle of this at a time they are trying to bring peace to the region,” Durbin said.
Outraged by the attacks and claiming they were unprovoked, Islamabad swiftly closed its border to trucks delivering supplies to coalition troops in Afghanistan and demanded the US vacate within 15 days a base used by American drones. The blockade is guaranteed to frustrate Congress. While calling for tougher diplomacy with Pakistan, Kyl said he would stop short of cutting off US aid entirely to Pakistan. He said that severing ties in the past has only led to an increased influence of extremists among Pakistan’s military ranks.
“It’s very important to maintain the relationship for the long haul,” he said, without offering more specifics on how that might be done. Durbin suggested the US back out from the region from a military standpoint. ap
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk