ISLAMABAD – Building up more pressure on Pakistan for early operation in North Waziristan, the US has threatened to operate itself against Taliban inside the Pakistani territories in case Islamabad dillydallies on doing more in this regard.
US President Barack Hussain Obama has conveyed this message directly to his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari in his letter delivered last week by high ranking visiting American officials including CIA Chief Leon Panetta and US National Security Advisor Gen James Jones, highly placed diplomatic sources told TheNation here.
According to the sources, President Zardari has not yet replied in writing to a two-page letter that General James Jones delivered to him last week. In the first place, President Zardari during his meeting with these officials is said to have given no indication of how Pakistan would respond to the message.
It is important to mention here that the Obama administration has changed its tone and served Pakistan with a written warning after Pakistan’s former President General Pervez Musharraf’s recent visit to the US. The sources claimed that such a high-powered delegation brought that intense message from the US President after Musharraf’s dubious meetings in Washington. “The US wants Pakistan to go hard on the militants and to increase cooperation with the Americans in this regard”, the sources said conveying the sense of the letter.
According to the sources, ObamaÂ’s letter was a firmly worded impetus for Pakistan to move hard against militants but it did not give out any sort of ultimatum or deadline for pacing up operations in tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.
However, defence analysts in Islamabad interpreted the message as a fairly bald warning that unless Pakistan moves quickly to act against two Taliban groups, the United States is prepared to take a unilateral action to expand drone attacks beyond the tribal areas. They believe that the Americans would also not hesitate in carrying out raids by special operations forces inside the Pakistani territories.
According a local official source from the Ministry of Defence, who has also been briefed on the meetings, said, “American’s message was if that Pakistani help isn’t forthcoming, the United States will have to do it by itself.”
When reached by his comments, a spokesperson of American Embassy in Islamabad denied this saying, “Pakistan and the US have agreed to enhance cooperation against terrorism and militancy; and that the US has not warned Pakistan of using special forces inside Pakistan”.
It is pertinent to mention here that the US has also offered Pakistan a broader strategic relationship and expanded intelligence sharing and non-military economic aid in case Pakistan meets its recent demand.
The US warning of increasing drone attacks inside Pakistan and using Special Operations forces has come at a time when American Special Operations forces are busy in battling Taliban near the Pak-Afghan border.
In September 2008, these Special Forces had attacked militants in a Pakistani village near Pak-Afghan border, in the first publicly acknowledged case of United States forces conducting a ground raid on Pakistani soil.
But the operation caused a political uproar in Pakistan, with the countryÂ’s Core Commanders condemning the attack, and the United States backed off what had been a planned series of such strikes.
It is believed that the US officials have already been told by Pakistan that its forces were already busy in taking on Afghan Taliban leaders and the Haqqani network based in North Waziristan, so it was not fair to press it to do more.