Angry Pak ready to dump US
Pakistan foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar has said Pakistan is prepared to part ways with the United States if it does not respect the sovereignty of the South Asian nation. “If the US wants to lose Pakistan as its allied partner then we are also prepared to pay the price,” Ms Khar told the Pakistani TV channel Geo News.
She criticised the US allegations against Pakistan and its intelligence agencies and warned that if the accusations didn’t stop the US would lose its partner. The “accusations will lead to nowhere but ultimate loss,” she said. Ms Khar’s comments came after congressional testimony about Pakistan from the US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Adm. Michael Mullen, who accused the ISI of “exporting violence” to Afghanistan. Adm. Mullen told a US Senate committee the ISI had aided the insurgents who attacked the American embassy in Kabul last week.
“With ISI support, Haqqani operatives planned and conducted that truck bomb attack, as well as the assault on our embassy”, Adm. Mullen told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We also have credible evidence that they were behind the June 28 attack at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul and a host of other smaller but effective operations,” Adm. Mullen said.
In Karachi, meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters, “They can’t live with us. They can’t live without us.”
He sought to play down tensions, saying, “So, I will say to them (US) that when they can’t live without us, they should increase contacts to end misunderstandings with us. If relations with the US are on the basis of mutual respect and mutual interest, and if there is such wrong messaging, then it is difficult to convince our people. I would ask America to leave political space for us so that we can convey their importance to the people,” he said.
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