Clinton arriving in Pakistan for talks

Oct 20, 2011 |

Islamabad

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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will hold talks with Pakistan's leadership to press the country to crack down on the Haqqani network to facilitate the process of reconciliation in neighbouring Afghanistan as she arrives here today.

Clinton will be accompanied by CIA chief Gen David Petraeus and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen Martin Dempsey, and she will hold meetings with Pakistan's civil and military leadership, including President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, diplomatic sources said.

The trip comes at a time when US-Pakistan relations have plunged to a new low following accusations by senior American officials that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency is using the Haqqani network to wage a proxy war in Afghanistan and to attack US and foreign forces.

Against the backdrop of a reported US and Afghan troop build-up along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Gen Kayani warned the US against any unilateral action in the tribal belt that is considered a safe haven for the Haqqani network and other militant groups.

Kayani told members of two parliamentary panels during a briefing yesterday that Pakistan was a nuclear power that could not be compared to Iraq or Afghanistan. The US would "have to think ten times" before taking any unilateral action within Pakistan, he said.

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