Pakistan's right to review relations in national interest: US

Pakistan

Pakistan's right to review relations in national interest: US

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United States has said that Pakistan is free to take any decision in its own national interest.

25 February,2012 05:19 am

During a briefing Friday, deputy spokesperson of the US State Department, Mark Toner was asked whether Pakistan was trying to dictate relations with US on its own terms by insisting on an overall parliamentary review. He, however, replied that Pakistanis were within their right to hold such a review. This is the Pakistanis exercising their sovereign right to look at this relationship, decide what they want out of this relationship, and make a decision that it’s in their national interest, as is our relationship with the Pakistani government in the US’s national interest, he pointed out.When asked whether the Pakistani parliament was taking a bit too long in completing the review process, he disagreed and said US administration was ready to wait for the recommendations. We’ve long said that we share the same goals and we face the same challenges, and that’s why this relationship is so important, he argued.If we can go back as far as the Secretary’s meeting with the Pakistani foreign minister in London, Secretary was saying that the US is ready to resume talks and have good back relations with Pakistan. But Pakistani foreign minister and also in Pakistan, they are saying that, wait a minute, we – this time the talks and relations will be on our terms and also we are reviewing – the parliament is reviewing the relations now. What I am asking you really, what if something turns out saying this is like Pakistani dictating the US foreign policy? And second, how long can you wait for the review in order to – isn’t some time too late?On another question asking him to throw some light on the difficulties in engaging with a Pakistani government facing internal crisis, like the indictment of Prime Minister Gilani in the Supreme Court, he said the US administration was unaffected by it. I don’t believe it’s difficult. This is an internal political process that’s being played out in the courts in Pakistan, but he (Gilani) remains the prime minister, he maintained.On the apology offered by President Obama and other high-ranking US officials on the Quran burning incident in Afghanistan, he said this was offered because the sorry incident was an affront not only to Afghans but to Muslims worldwide, and it was in that spirit that this apology was offered.He, though, expressed concern over the spate of violent demonstrations in Afghanistan following the incident. Right now, we’ve seen some ongoing demonstrations today in towns and cities across Afghanistan. We’re obviously very concerned about these pockets of violence and reports of deaths. We’re going to continue to engage with the Afghan political, religious, and civil society in order to call for calm, Mark Toner stated.We’ve seen Afghan leaders from President Karzai, and others, while recognizing the severity of the incident that took place, calling for calm, and we’re hopeful that the Afghan people will accept our sincerest apologies for what happened and we can move on, he hoped. - Contributed by Awais Saleem, Dunya News correspondent in Washington, DC