The Pakistani Taliban threatened on Tuesday to attack NATO supply trucks if they tried to resume supplies to troops in Afghanistan. Tahir Ali reports.
NATO on Monday endorsed plans to hand over to Afghan forces the complete responsibility of security in the war-torn country by 2013 as the military alliance gradually transitions in its role from combat to training before their final withdrawal in 2014.
"We want to make certain that no terrorist organisation can find a haven anywhere, and, with a border adjoining Afghanistan, that makes Pakistan a priority," Mattis said.
The expression of remorse by United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was enough to break the deadlock that had led to the blocking of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's supply routes for the last seven months, following the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a cross-border NATO strike at the Salala check-post in November last year.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi stated this after a meeting with visiting NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who sought deepening cooperation and developing political dialogue between Pakistan and the European military alliance to achieve common strategic objectives. Any 'activation on the eastern border' would affect Pakistan's involvement in the war on terror, Qureshi told a joint press conference after their talks.
A North Atlantic Treaty Organisation officer in Afghanistan took about 45 minutes to notify a senior allied commander about Pakistan's calls that its outposts were under attack, according to new details of the probe into last month's air strike that killed 26 Pakistani soldiers.
"The goal is to have an Afghanistan again that has a degree of stability such that forces like Al Qaeda and associated groups cannot have safe haven unimpeded, which could threaten the region and threaten US and other interests in the world," US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon said, outlining the issues that would figure at the key summit.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation attack that killed 24 Pakistani troops has widened the US-Pak rift, according to a leading American daily, which said the Obama administration's regret and Islamabad's anger over the strike reflects a "deepening distrust" that gets harder to repair with each new confrontation.
The United States on Tuesday said that North Atlantic Treaty Organisation countries have decided it is important to have participation of Pakistan at the Chicago Summit on Afghanistan hoping that Islamabad would be able to reopen the supply routes by then.
Pakistan has formally communicated to the United Nations its protest and condemnation of the air-strike by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation that killed 24 soldiers and has strained ties between Washington and Islamabad. Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations Abdullah Hussain Haroon has written a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, informing him of the NATO attack of November 26 "on Pakistan's border posts (that) resulted in the martyrdom of 24 officers".
Russia and the United States will continue to develop a "positive, at the least, partnership dialogue", President Vladimir Putin said but warned that Moscow would "be forced to aim missiles" at countries perceived as a threat, specifically Ukraine, which is keen to join NATO.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation spy planes mounted a 24-hour air space surveillance over Libya, as British Defence Secretary Liam Fox hinted that a no-fly zone could be enforced without wiping the North African nation's air defences.
The United States continues to negotiate with Pakistan on re-opening of the crucial NATO supply routes to Afghanistan that were closed by Islamabad after a cross-border NATO air strike killed 24 of its soldiers last year, the State Department said on Wednesday.
The United States on Thursday (local time) evaded a question on whether Pakistan held prior consultations with Washington, DC before conducting retaliatory air strikes on Iran.
However, leaders of the NATO-led ISAF mission countries at the end of their Chicago meeting pledged to have a long-term commitment to Afghanistan, given that they still have a long way to go in the fight against terrorism and achieving political stability and satisfactory-level security in the country, to have another NATO-led mission for Afghanistan post 2014.
According to sources, this decision was taken during a high-level informal meeting held at the Presidency, which was chaired by President Asif Ali Zardari and attended by Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, ISI DG Lt. Gen Zaheerul Islam, foreign secretary and Pakistan's ambassador to US Sherry Rehman, reports The Nation.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has announced plans for a large-scale airlift of relief supplies from Europe for the survivors of the devastating floods in Pakistan, as donors pledged more assistance after a slow start of aid efforts.
The Defa-e-Pakistan Council, a grouping of 40 radical groups cobbled together by LeT founder Hafiz Saeed, has warned that it will not allow even food supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan to pass through the country.
The Chinese cyber-penetration of key offices in both NATO and the EU has led to restrictions in the normal flow of intelligence because there are concerns that secret intelligence reports might be vulnerable.
Former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said Pakistan was humiliated at the NATO Summit in Chicago because of President Asif Ali Zardari's "zero credibility".
A suicide car bomb attack near a hospital and army recruitment centre killed at least 20 civilians in Kabul on Tuesday morning, and injured scores of others.According to reports, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's troops were the target of the attack that took place during rush hour in the western part of the Afghan capital. A NATO convoy was passing the area at the time of the attack, said reports.No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
In an apparent snub to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, his United States counterpart Barack Obama on Monday did not mention Pakistan in his opening remarks at the NATO Summit meeting on Afghanistan and instead welcomed the presence of officials from the Central Asia and Russia.
As Nato leaders assemble in Chicago to discuss Afghanistan, the Taliban have issued a 14-point agenda to its leaders, with a succinct message: Get out now, reports Tahir Ali
United States President Barack Obama should "show some courage" and apologise to Pakistan for a cross-border air strike by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in Afghanistan that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last year, the ruling Pakistan People's Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said.
Did the Pakistani officials mistakenly sanction the deadly NATO strike on their own border outposts killing 24 soldiers? According to a Wall Street Journal report, that is what happened on the fateful Saturday.
Pakistan on Wednesday reacted angrily to a leaked NATO report that accused its security services of helping the Afghan Taliban just as Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar began a visit to Kabul, saying the allegations were "frivolous".
Pakistan Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has given his troops "full liberty" to respond to any further cross-border attacks by NATO forces in Afghanistan in the wake of an air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, official sources said.
The battalion will carry out surveillance and detection to protect the August 13-29 Olympics and September 17-28 Paralympics.
The United States said it was in early stages of investigation into the cross-border North Atlantic Treaty Organisation air raid that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and was not apologising to Islamabad, as of now.
Neither the BJP, nor the Congress before it, made any manifesto commitments on defence spending, even though allocations have plummeted from 4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the late 1980s to less than 2 per cent today, points out Ajai Shukla.
The incident occurred early Tuesday morning in Datta Khel region of North Waziristan Agency, which has witnessed numerous missile strikes by US drones over the past few years.
In an exclusive interview with Business Standard, Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen insisted that the military alliance's relations with close ally Pakistan would not be developed at the expense of India.
Novak Djokovic, chasing a record 23rd Grand Slam title, has said he was not holding back and would do it again. He is set to play his second-round match later on Wednesday against Hungary's Marton Fucsovics.
Militants in Pakistan on Friday carried out two separate attacks on vehicles carrying fuel for NATO and United States forces in Afghanistan, killing five persons and injuring several others.
The Pakistan government is finalising agreements with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation over the reopening of supply routes to Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has told a key parliamentary panel.
At least six people were killed and 27 tankers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation were set on fire during an attack by suspected militants on an oil depot close to Islamabad. According to the BBC, dozens of tankers were being filled with fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan when the attack took place on Monday morning."Between 10 to 12 men armed with automatic weapons stormed the depot from two sides. They opened indiscriminate fire on the tankers," said an official.
The expectations of both Pakistan and NATO have not been "fully fulfilled" at the alliance's summit in Chicago, Pakistan's powerful army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has said.
US President Barack Obama met his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari twice, including a brief one-on-one conversation, on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Chicago, the White House said.
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