ASPEN: Tensions flared between the United States and Pakistan on Friday, as two top officials traded accusations of doing too little to combat the Taliban sanctuaries in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The tart exchange between the officials, Douglas E Lute, President Obama's top adviser on Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Sherry Rehman, Pakistan's envoy to the United States, took place during a conference.
Under questioning from Steve Kroft of "60 Minutes", Sherry, speaking on video conference from Washington, said that Pakistani Taliban, who have taken refuge in two remote provinces in eastern Afghanistan, were increasingly carrying out rocket attacks and cross-border raids against Pakistan.
"These are critical masses of people that come in; this is not just potshots," she said. The envoy said further on 52 different occasions in the last eight months Pakistan had provided to the US and NATO commanders in Afghanistan the locations from which the terrorists were attacking, but to no avail.
Immediately, Lute, a retired three-star general and deputy national security adviser, fired back. "There's no comparison of the Pakistani Taliban's relatively recent, small-in-scale presence inside Afghanistan to the decades-long experience and relationship between elements of the Pakistani government and the Afghan Taliban," he said. "To compare these is simply unfair."
Pakistani officials say two senior Taliban commanders — Mullah Fazlullah from Swat and Faqir Muhammad from Bajaur — are taking refuge in Afghanistan while their fighters plan attacks in Pakistan.
"We're feeling a little bit of blowback from ISAF redeployments along the border," Sherry said, referring to the NATO command in Afghanistan.
The barbed exchange came during a wide-ranging 90-minute panel discussion in the Aspen Security Forum at the Aspen Institute. At the beginning of the session, it seemed that Lute and Sherry were intent on building upon the recently agreed deal to reopen NATO supply lines into Afghanistan.
Sherry said that the two countries had experienced "an extraordinarily difficult period" after a US air strike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at Salala last November, but that they were still staunch allies. Lute said the countries shared the vital interests of defeating al Qaeda and stabilising Afghanistan.
Sherry called for an end to CIA drone strikes, adding that the attacks succeeded in damaging al Qaeda but were now only serving to recruit new terrorists.
"I am not saying drones have not assisted in the war against terror, but they have diminishing rate of returns," Sherry said.
"We will seek an end to drone strikes and there will be no compromise on that," she added.
Lute would not comment on the drone programme, but US officials have said privately that the programme will continue because Pakistan had proved incapable or unwilling to target terrorists the US considers dangerous.
Sherry defended Pakistan's arrest of Dr Shakeel Afridi, who has been sentenced to more than three decades in prison for aiding the CIA in tracking down Osama bin Laden by conducting a fake vaccine programme in Abbottabad.
The tart exchange between the officials, Douglas E Lute, President Obama's top adviser on Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Sherry Rehman, Pakistan's envoy to the United States, took place during a conference.
Under questioning from Steve Kroft of "60 Minutes", Sherry, speaking on video conference from Washington, said that Pakistani Taliban, who have taken refuge in two remote provinces in eastern Afghanistan, were increasingly carrying out rocket attacks and cross-border raids against Pakistan.
"These are critical masses of people that come in; this is not just potshots," she said. The envoy said further on 52 different occasions in the last eight months Pakistan had provided to the US and NATO commanders in Afghanistan the locations from which the terrorists were attacking, but to no avail.
Immediately, Lute, a retired three-star general and deputy national security adviser, fired back. "There's no comparison of the Pakistani Taliban's relatively recent, small-in-scale presence inside Afghanistan to the decades-long experience and relationship between elements of the Pakistani government and the Afghan Taliban," he said. "To compare these is simply unfair."
Pakistani officials say two senior Taliban commanders — Mullah Fazlullah from Swat and Faqir Muhammad from Bajaur — are taking refuge in Afghanistan while their fighters plan attacks in Pakistan.
"We're feeling a little bit of blowback from ISAF redeployments along the border," Sherry said, referring to the NATO command in Afghanistan.
The barbed exchange came during a wide-ranging 90-minute panel discussion in the Aspen Security Forum at the Aspen Institute. At the beginning of the session, it seemed that Lute and Sherry were intent on building upon the recently agreed deal to reopen NATO supply lines into Afghanistan.
Sherry said that the two countries had experienced "an extraordinarily difficult period" after a US air strike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at Salala last November, but that they were still staunch allies. Lute said the countries shared the vital interests of defeating al Qaeda and stabilising Afghanistan.
Sherry called for an end to CIA drone strikes, adding that the attacks succeeded in damaging al Qaeda but were now only serving to recruit new terrorists.
"I am not saying drones have not assisted in the war against terror, but they have diminishing rate of returns," Sherry said.
"We will seek an end to drone strikes and there will be no compromise on that," she added.
Lute would not comment on the drone programme, but US officials have said privately that the programme will continue because Pakistan had proved incapable or unwilling to target terrorists the US considers dangerous.
Sherry defended Pakistan's arrest of Dr Shakeel Afridi, who has been sentenced to more than three decades in prison for aiding the CIA in tracking down Osama bin Laden by conducting a fake vaccine programme in Abbottabad.
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