Trust Is Issue, Pakistan Tells U.S.
By JANE PERLEZ
Published: April 8, 2009
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Two senior American officials came under withering public criticism from Pakistan on Tuesday, with the Pakistani foreign minister saying that “trust” between the countries was in question, particularly over the issue of American missile attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
With the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, and the special envoy to the region, Richard C. Holbrooke, at his side, the minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, said: “We did talk about drones, and let me be very frank: there is a gap between us.”
He added, “The bottom line is the question of trust.”
In another sign of new strains in the relationship, the head of Pakistan’s intelligence service, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, refused to meet separately with Mr. Holbrooke and General Mullen, who had requested a meeting, according to Pakistani officials and an American official, who sought anonymity because he did not want to further damage relations.
General Pasha did attend a meeting with the two Americans and Pakistani military’s chief of staff, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, according to a statement issued by the press arm of the Pakistani Army after Mr. Holbrooke and General Mullen left Islamabad for India on Tuesday night.
Mr. Qureshi singled out the issue of the remotely piloted aircraft armed with missiles that the United States used against Al Qaeda’s havens in the tribal areas adjacent to Afghanistan.
But senior Pakistani military and intelligence officers have also been deeply rankled by a public suggestion almost two weeks ago by Mr. Holbrooke and the head of Central Command, Gen. David H. Petraeus, that the powerful Pakistani intelligence agency was still supporting Taliban fighters who cross into Afghanistan to attack American troops.
Mr. Holbrooke and General Mullen arrived in Pakistan Monday night for a one-day visit during which they planned to elaborate on the details of the new strategy laid out by President Obama to eliminate Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan.
At a news conference at the Foreign Ministry, Mr. Qureshi raised his voice to admonish the two Americans. “The terms of engagement are very clear,” he said. “We will engage with mutual trust and mutual respect, and that is the bottom line.”
He added: “We can only work together if we respect each other and trust each other. There is no other way and nothing else will work.”
Under the new Obama policy, American officials have said, new infusions of American military and civilian aid will be carefully monitored to ensure it is spent for the intended purposes, and not diverted for other uses.
Obama administration officials have said there will be “no blank check for Pakistan.” In response, Mr. Qureshi said Pakistan would “neither accept nor give one.”
Mr. Holbrooke said the United States and Pakistan had enjoyed a long relationship and Washington continued to back Pakistan.
American and Pakistan officials will meet in Tokyo soon to raise funds to help Pakistan with its economic difficulties, he said. “This is the pattern, that will continue,” Mr. Holbrooke said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/world/asia/08pstan.html?hp
