Despite drone attacks and other irritants, govt not ready to take tough stance against US

ISLAMABAD, April 14: Security cooperation may be the bedrock of US-Pakistan ties, but problems in counter-terrorism collaboration will not hold back Islamabad any further from proceeding with a "reset" in the relationship with Washington. "The only thing I would like to state is that Pakistan attaches immense importance to its relations with the US. We have a multi-track engagement with the US. Law-enforcement and counter-terrorism is one such track," Foreign Office Spokesperson Tehmina Janjua said at the weekly media briefing on Thursday while responding to a number of questions about drones and covert CIA operations in the country. The remarks clearly suggested that Pakistan wanted to move on with the relationship despite issues in security ties. It was only on Wednesday that the Foreign Office had described the continuing drone attacks as a 'core irritant' in the counter-terrorism cooperation. The spokesperson's comments came ahead of Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir's visit next week to Washington (April 21-22) where he would discuss many of the thorny issues complicating the relationship and probably try to push the Americans to correct the fundamentals of their engagement with Pakistan. Furthermore, Ms Janjua's replies suggested that the government was not ready to adopt a tough stance similar to the one it took last month by pulling out of trilateral talks with the US and Afghanistan when missiles targeted a tribal jirga in North Waziristan, even though it had lodged a protest with Ambassador Cameron Munter after Wednesday's Angoor Adda attack. ISI chief Gen Shuja Pasha was earlier this week in Washington for talks with CIA Director Leon Panetta. Even though an unusual post-meeting statement issued by CIA said that its relations with ISI remained on strong footing, the drone attack in Angoor Adda suggested otherwise. There are now signs that Mr Panetta did not fully accept Gen Pasha's wish list that he carried with him and only agreed on giving 'limited concessions'. Prior to Gen Pasha's trip to the US, Centcom Commander Gen Mattis visited Islamabad to listen to Pakistani military's grievances. Sources said that although the US military was sympathetic to Pakistani concerns, other quarters — President Obama's national security team and CIA — were proving tough bargainers. Failing to convince the US to at least provide it a face-saving on the drone war which is hugely unpopular in Pakistan, the latest tactic in government's armoury is to expand the debate on drones to other countries to build 'pressure' on the US to revisit its policy. "Obviously as an effort on the part of the government of Pakistan to address this core irritant in the counter-terrorism campaign, this issue will be discussed with those countries that have an interest in counter-terrorism," Ms Janjua said. Although she did not specify with which countries Pakistan was interested in raising the matter, talking to reporters after the briefing she hinted that the matter had been discussed with the UK with which Pakistan had recently initiated a security dialogue under the umbrella of 'Enhanced Strategic Dialogue'. STRAINS WITH IRAN: The spokesperson at the briefing tried to downplay protest by Iran over recruitment in Pakistan for Bahraini defence forces — many of whom are likely to be used to suppress pro-democracy movement in the Gulf state. "With Iran, we have very good relations. We discuss all issues in a very friendly manner," Ms Janjua said while responding to several questions about the Iranian protest made with Pakistani charge d'affairs in Tehran. Diplomatic sources said the Iranian government, while conveying its reservations, had categorically stated that continued hiring of retired military personnel by welfare wings of Pakistani military would have serious implications for bilateral ties that are already not in the best of shape because of differences over regional policies. Bahrain's national guards have recruited about 1000 retired military personnel through Fauji Foundation and Bahria Foundation. These are in addition to almost 10,000 Pakistanis presently serving in security services of Bahrain. Ms Janjua's efforts to talk down the Iranian protest coincided with comments by Iranian Ambassador Masha'allah Shakeri at a round table discussion in Islamabad on situation in the Arab world. He questioned the logic of other countries sending security personnel to suppress a movement in another country. But, the envoy, conscious of his diplomatic limitations, made no direct reference to the recruitment in the host country (Pakistan) for Bahrain. "Even the legitimate government of a country has no right to suppress the demands of the people. How come the strangers, those who do not belong to that country they take the troops to suppress the people of another country. So this is a big question which the Iranians are raising," Mr Shakeri said.