The Obama administration raised the pressure Wednesday on the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan to crack down on resurgent extremism seen as threatening the stability of key US anti-terror allies.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proclaimed a "common cause" when she opened talks with Presidents Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan, before the two leaders meet US President Barack Obama.
"We have made this common cause because we face a common threat. We have a common task, and a common challenge," Clinton told the two leaders heading high-level delegations to Washington.
"We know that each of your countries is struggling with the extremists who would destabilize and undermine democracy," she added.
Obama wants support for his new multi-billion-dollar strategy to crush the Taliban and Al-Qaeda; Zardari seeks US military aid and a political prop-up while Karzai hopes for a purge on Taliban havens in Pakistan.
The talks come amid fresh waves of deadly clashes in Pakistan's Swat valley.
The Pakistani military said it killed more than 60 militants in heavy bombardments in an upsurge of fighting Wednesday that caused tens of thousands to flee and threatened to torpedo a northwest peace deal.
Helicopter gunships and artillery swung into action against Taliban in Swat in the deadliest fighting reported in the northwest former ski resort since a February deal sought to end a nearly two-year Taliban insurgency.
Zardari, sitting to the left of Clinton at a rectangular table in an ornate State Department room, sounded a strong note of support for the common fight.
"We stand with our brother Karzai and the people of Afghanistan against this common threat, this menace, which I have called a cancer," Zardari said.
He said Pakistan bore a "huge burden" in fighting both the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, but added "we are up to the challenge because we are the democracy and democracy is the only cure to this challenge."
He argued that even though his democratically elected civilian government had been in power only a few months, it had done better fighting terrorism than his predecessor Pervez Musharraf, a general who seized power in a coup.
Karzai, seated to Clinton's right, said Pakistan and Afghanistan "are conjoined twins," adding: "Our suffering is shared."
Clinton said the three-way talks on Wednesday were aimed at finding concrete initiatives that all three countries could develop to build their democracies, boost their economies and defeat terrorism.
The chief US diplomat hailed a good start when Karzai and Zardari signed a memorandum of understanding committing the two countries to a trade agreement by the end of the year.
"This is an historic event. This agreement has been under discussion for 43 years without resolution," she added.
In maybe his most challenging diplomatic gambit yet, Obama will hold one-on-one crisis talks with both Karzai and Zardari and convene a trilateral White House summit.
Obama has made Pakistan the epicenter of the US battle against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda and has dispatched 4,000 more troops to Afghanistan, in addition to an extra 17,000 already committed.
A congressional aid bill would triple US civilian help to Pakistan to 1.5 billion dollars a year over the next five years.
Obama argues the United States and its allies will never prevail in the post-September 11 struggle against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda without a fresh and coordinated bid to beat Islamic militancy.
But the meetings are taking place after public disagreements between the three nations.
Washington fears the survival of Pakistan's democracy is threatened by domestic insurgents and sees fractious border areas as teeming with militants who strike at US troops in Afghanistan.
There are also international fears over corruption in the Karzai government and its lack of influence outside Kabul.
Pakistan appears irritated by recent US critiques of a crumbling peace deal with the Taliban in the Swat valley and worries about the security of its nuclear arsenal.
Karzai meanwhile has frequently bemoaned Afghan civilian casualties in US military strikes against what Washington says are terror targets.
Clinton said the United States deeply regrets the deaths of civilians in Afghanistan and added her weight to investigations into police reports that US-led air strikes against insurgents had killed 100 people.
Clinton said the United States deeply regrets the deaths of civilians in Afghanistan and added her weight to investigations into police reports that US-led air strikes against insurgents had killed 100 people.
No comments:
Post a Comment