By IANS,
Islamabad : A tug of war is taking place between Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI and the CIA, said a Pakistani daily while noting that the US had given out the firm message that it was in “in no mood” to scale down operations in this country’s tribal areas.
An editorial in the Daily Times Friday said that by carrying out a drone attack near Angoor Adda in South Waziristan just a day after a four-hour long meeting between the CIA and ISI, “the US has given out a firm message that it is in no mood to scale down its CIA-led operations in the tribal areas of Pakistan”.
In the meeting held between the Central Intelligence Agency and Inter-Services Intelligence in Washington, “Pakistan had put the pre-condition of limiting the scale of drone attacks for resuming intelligence cooperation with the US in the war against terror, which was stalled after the arrest of CIA contractor Raymond Davis in Lahore in January”.
After Davis was arrested, it had come to light that there were around 300-350 CIA agents working in Pakistan.
“Although they have supposedly left the country to secure the release of Raymond Davis, is there a guarantee they would not be replaced?
“It is hard to imagine that the camel in the Arab’s tent will leave voluntarily. The latest drone attack is a clear indication of the US thinking,” it said.
The editorial said that it seemed unlikely that the US would rollback its presence or operations as long as it sees them serving its interests in the region.
“Pakistan is caught between a rock and a hard place and it would take a real test of wits of Pakistan’s security establishment to find a way out.
“In fact, the two sides are locked in an uneasy embrace where they do not trust each other but need each other’s help. Presently, a tug of war is going on between the two. Only time will tell which way things would settle.”