Pakistan dismisses allegation of support for Taliban rebels
Source: Agencies |
February 2, 2012, Thursday
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PAKISTANI Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said yesterday that a leaked US military report claiming Pakistan supported the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan can be "disregarded."
"We can disregard this as a potentially strategic leak... This is old wine in an even older bottle," she told reporters during an official visit to the Afghan capital Kabul.
The US military said in a secret report the Taliban are set to retake control of Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw, raising the prospect of a major failure of Western policy after a costly war.
Khar, whose visit was the first high-level meeting in months between officials from both countries, added that the neighbors should stop blaming each other for strained ties.
"We must start engaging in the end of blame games," she said.
A secret US military report says that the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control over Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw from the country, The Times newspaper reported yesterday.
Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), confirmed the document's existence but said it was not a strategic assessment of operations.
"The classified document in question is a compilation of Taliban detainee opinions. It's not an analysis, nor is it meant to be considered an analysis," he said.
The document cited by Britain's The Times said that Pakistan's powerful security agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was assisting the Taliban in directing attacks against foreign forces, a charge denied by Islamabad.
The allegations drew a strong response from Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit. "This is frivolous, to put it mildly," he said. "We are committed to non-interference."
The Times said the "highly classified" report was put together by the US military at Bagram air base in Afghanistan for top NATO officers last month. The BBC also carried a report on the leaked document.
Large swathes of Afghanistan have already been handed back to Afghan security forces, with the last foreign troops due to leave by the end of 2014.
The accusations will likely further strain ties between Western powers and Islamabad, which has long denied backing militant groups seeking to topple the US-backed government in Kabul.
Pakistan is currently reviewing ties with the United States which have suffered a series of setbacks since a US raid that killed Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil last year humiliated Pakistan's powerful generals.
"We can disregard this as a potentially strategic leak... This is old wine in an even older bottle," she told reporters during an official visit to the Afghan capital Kabul.
The US military said in a secret report the Taliban are set to retake control of Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw, raising the prospect of a major failure of Western policy after a costly war.
Khar, whose visit was the first high-level meeting in months between officials from both countries, added that the neighbors should stop blaming each other for strained ties.
"We must start engaging in the end of blame games," she said.
A secret US military report says that the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control over Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw from the country, The Times newspaper reported yesterday.
Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), confirmed the document's existence but said it was not a strategic assessment of operations.
"The classified document in question is a compilation of Taliban detainee opinions. It's not an analysis, nor is it meant to be considered an analysis," he said.
The document cited by Britain's The Times said that Pakistan's powerful security agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was assisting the Taliban in directing attacks against foreign forces, a charge denied by Islamabad.
The allegations drew a strong response from Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit. "This is frivolous, to put it mildly," he said. "We are committed to non-interference."
The Times said the "highly classified" report was put together by the US military at Bagram air base in Afghanistan for top NATO officers last month. The BBC also carried a report on the leaked document.
Large swathes of Afghanistan have already been handed back to Afghan security forces, with the last foreign troops due to leave by the end of 2014.
The accusations will likely further strain ties between Western powers and Islamabad, which has long denied backing militant groups seeking to topple the US-backed government in Kabul.
Pakistan is currently reviewing ties with the United States which have suffered a series of setbacks since a US raid that killed Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil last year humiliated Pakistan's powerful generals.
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