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Pakistan wants unconditional aid from US: Haqqani
Pakistan wants aid from the Obama administration without any "strings attached", the country's ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani has said.Haqqani has said that "assistance that is conditional is never good." His comments come in the wake of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's plan proposal to triple civilian aid to Pakistan but impose clear conditions on military assistance to ensure the money goes towards fighting terrorists rather than building up Pakistan's defences against India. But to this the Pakistani envoy had a poser. "There is no bullet that has been invented that Pakistan can be given to shoot at the terrorists that cannot be used in case there is a war with India," he said in an interview to Financial Times. At the same time in an effort not to get his nation on the wrong side of the new US administration, Haqqani pledged that Pakistan would focus on fighting its "primary threat." He outlined this threat as currently coming from terrorists and not from "eastern neighbour (India)." The Obama administration is expected to unveil its foreign and security policy as its Vice President Joseph Biden speaks at the international security conference in Munich in Germany. Haqqani's advice was that while Islamabad can discuss what the Americans would prefer... any conditional aids are not going to serve the US or Pakistani interest. Posted by: tipper 2009-02-07 |
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