Washington, Jan 23 (IANS) The US has ruled out military strikes on its own inside Pakistan despite shortcomings in the quality of information it’s getting about terrorist groups and militants operating in the country’s tribal area.
The US would not go in unless Islamabad requests such direct support, the State Department’s counter-terrorism chief Dell Dailey told reporters Tuesday.
“There are gaps in intelligence,” he said. “We don’t have enough information about what’s going on there. Not on Al Qaeda. Not on foreign fighters. Not on the Taliban.”
The lack of information makes him “uncomfortable”, Dailey said. Yet the solution to the problem rests mainly with the Pakistanis, who would likely see too much US involvement as an unwelcome intrusion.
Saying that more than 40 percent of Pakistanis support or are sympathetic to Al Qaeda and radical Islam, he said: “We have to be careful conducting operations in a sovereign country, particularly one that’s a friend of ours and one that has given us a lot of support.”
“The blowback would be pretty serious.” But if Pakistanis ask for assistance, the US will provide it, Dailey said.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Bush administration would continue to provide US military aid to Pakistan while also warning that Musharraf must support and promote democracy.
It is critical that legislative elections set for February be free and fair, Rice said ahead of talks with Musharraf in Switzerland Wednesday – the first high level contact with the Pakistani leader since last month’s assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.
“In Pakistan’s circumstances, these elections need to be elections that will have the confidence of Pakistanis. I mean that is the important point because with all that has happened in Pakistan, these elections are an opportunity.
“It’s not something for the United States or something for Europe, it’s for the Pakistanis and that’s how I see the elections,” she said.
“The situation in Pakistan is obviously complicated, but our strong view is that we have to have a long-term, consistent, predictable relationship with Pakistan, not with any one person, but with the institutions of Pakistan,” she said.
“Musharraf has been a good ally in the war on terror,” Rice told reporters Tuesday on her plane as she flew to Germany for a meeting of the foreign ministers of the permanent members of the UN Security Council on new sanctions on Iran.
“But our policies have been about strengthening a moderate centre in Pakistan. It’s about helping in efforts to promote better education for Pakistanis. We’ve embarked on trying to help development in the most difficult region, which is the FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Area) region,” Rice said.
The US has been “very involved in trying to help the Pakistanis train for the war on terrorism and all moderate forces in Pakistan obviously have very determined enemies. And I don’t see how any of those interests or any of those tasks change”, she said.
“Now, we are all working very hard with the Pakistanis to try and ensure that the elections will be an opportunity for Pakistan to get back on the democratic path and an opportunity for Pakistanis to come together and that’s very much on everybody’s mind.
“But I think the assistance is aimed at very important goals and that isn’t going to change,” Rice said.