US sought permission from Pakistan for the January Drone strike in North Waziristan

US sought permission from Pakistan for the January Drone strike in North Waziristan

US officials while giving an interview to an American newspaper “The Washington Post” have admitted the CIA sought permission from Pakistan to carry out a drone strike against a terrorist hideout deep inside Waziristan, but the request was turned down by
Islamabad after which the drone strike was called off.

According to sources, the Americans cancelled their regular drone strikes inside Pakistan after the November 24 border intrusion by NATO forces, which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, causing a new low in Pakistan-US relationship.

After a hiatus of almost 55 days, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) early this month in formed Islamabad about its plans to strike a terrorist safe haven, however, the request was turned down by the Pakistani authorities and the strike had to be cancelled.

However, just after one week, the CIA in formed Pakistan in advance of a drone strike, while this time no permission was sought as the intelligence community at Langley deemed the air strike crucial enough not to be called off on behest of Pakistan.

In another development regarding the estranged relationship between the two countries, it has been learned that Obama administration’s top diplomat in charge of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, wanted to visit Islamabad during his current tour of
the region, however, Pakistani officials deemed the visit in convenient at a time when the country is seriously considering its future policy with the USA.

Since the NATO strikes, Pakistan has suspended all rugged routes for NATO supplies and is now sorting a change in relationship with the US and its allies.

According to sources, Pakistan now wants greater say in America’s drone programme as the country wants to have complete details about the target before a strike actually taking place.

It is believed that Pakistan will also reduce the geographical scope of the drone strikes in order to limit them to only certain areas indentifies as hot zones for terrorist activities.

Speaking on the future Pakistan-US cooperation, a US official said, “It’ll be much more realpolitik. It’s getting away from the grandiose vision of what could be to focusing on what is.”  

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=9569

Posted by Ammar Ahmad on Jan 18 2012. Filed under Latest News, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry