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Pak takes issue of border spat with India to US
Gen Raheel Sharif is trying to rebuild Pak’s military ties with Washington that has been undermined by the US raid that found and killed Osama bin laden.
WASHINGTON: Pakistan's top military general brought complaints about his border spats with India to US doorsteps even as the country's chief foreign advisor undercut his narrative of Pakistan's struggle against terrorism by saying his government is not going to target militants that do not pose a threat to the state.Gen Raheel Sharif is trying to rebuild Pak’s military ties with Washington that has been undermined by the US raid that found and killed Osama bin laden.
On his first visit to the US as the country's army chief — and the first in four years by a top Pakistani general — Gen Raheel Sharif is trying to rebuild the country's military ties with Washington that has been undermined by the US raid on a Abbottabad villa that found and killed Osama bin laden and flaming rows over spying activity against each other. Ahead of the visit, Sharif and his US-dependent army has tried to rebuild the narrative about Pakistan's renewed resolve to fights terrorists (against the universal perception that it actually fosters them) in order to extract more aid and military supplies.
Part of the narrative also involves telling the US that India's aggressive posture on its border is distracting Pakistan from its fight against extremists on its border with Afghanistan. Sharif made this point in his interaction in Tampa on Monday with US Central Command chief Gen Lloyd Dennis, under whose jurisdiction Pakistan falls. "Gen #Raheel gave Pak perspective on regional security, improving Pak-Afgn mil relation, Indian aggression along LOC," tweeted Pakistan's military spokesman Asim Bajwa.
But ahead of Raheel Sharif's meeting in Washington DC on Tuesday when he is scheduled to call on the chairman of joint chiefs staff General Martin Dempsey and other Washington principals, Pakistan's foreign advisor Sartaj Aziz embarrassed him by suggesting in an interview to BBC that Pakistan has not really changed with respect to its assessment about terrorism - it will act only against terrorists who fight the Pakistani state and will not touch others.
"Why should America's enemies unnecessarily become our enemies," Aziz, Pakistani prime minister's advisor on national security and foreign affairs, was quoted as saying. "When the United States attacked Afghanistan, all those that were trained and armed by us together were pushed towards Pakistan. Some of them were dangerous for us and some were not. Why must we make enemies out of them all?"
The Pakistani foreign office reeled back his comments saying he statement was made in a "historical context" and Pakistan's resolve to fight all terrorists should not be doubted, but it remains to be seen how all this will go down in Washington, where many long time Pakistan sympathizers infused with romantic memories of Cold War partnerships are fading away, and the new crop of military and civilian leaders are lacerated by stories of Pakistani depredations that has killed and wounded thousands of US troops in Afghanistan.
Some of the Pakistani double-dealing is captured in vivid details in the fourth season of an ongoing television series called Homeland — a Washington staple — dealing with security challenges to the United States.
Raheel and the Pakistan team are attempting to overcome the stigma by launching a full-scale military operation against militants in its tribal regions and making peace with the new government in Kabul ahead of their visit to Washington DC, but for a change the country's civilian leadership may have torpedoed the mission.
Source:- Pak takes issue of border spat with India to US - The Times of India
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