Washington: Acknowledging the "strain" in
US-Pak relationship, a top US intelligence official has said that the internal situation in Pakistan is "fraught" and will
take some time to get back to normalcy.
"The relationship (with Pakistan) is very important, but
the relationship right now is also quite strained," (Gen.)
David Petraeus, the CIA Director, told lawmakers at a
Congressional hearing, responding to a question on the US-Pak
relationship.
The most recent cause of that, of course, is the November
26 border incident between ISAF and Pakistani forces, he said.
There is an awareness in Pakistan as well that this is a
critically important relationship, that there are areas of
considerable mutual concern, mutual objectives, while there
are also ones in which there are diverging interests, Petraeus
said.
"The activities right now are also complicated, though,
because of the difficulties in the domestic context there,
where there`s a bit of tension between the Supreme Court,
between the army chief and the ISI director and the
government, the president and the Prime Minister. That may be
calming a bit. There have been signs of that in recent days,"
he said.
"It`s worth noting, by the way, that the former Pakistani
ambassador to the United States, (Husain) Haqqani, was allowed
to leave, and he did arrive in the UAE this morning," he said.
"Nonetheless, the situation, I think as our British
colleagues might say, is fraught, and it is going to take some
time. It`s going to take a lot of diplomacy, engagement and so
forth to move forward in a relationship that`s important to
both our countries," he said.
"I should note that -- as a general comment -- we believe
the relationship between the intelligence services is
generally still productive.
"There is certainly good communication going back and
forth, and there have been some important -- again, pursuit of
important mutual objectives between the two services," Panetta
said when asked about the relationship between the
intelligence community of the two countries," said Petraeus.
PTI
