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| Photo Courtesy: Daily Kawish, Hyderabad |
The U.S. would continue its fight against the Taliban while seeking a political solution in Afghan, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday even as he rejected Pakistan’s concerns on American drone strikes. “Dialogue and military strategy will continue...I do not agree that there is a lack of synchronisation between the two,” Mr. Kerry told a joint news conference with National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz after intensive meetings with Pakistan’s top leadership.
Mr. Kerry refused to promise that U.S. drone attacks inside Pakistan would stop and rejected the impression that the strikes were a violation of the country’s sovereignty.
“I know there are issues of sovereignty that are raised. I would simply remind all of our friends that somebody like al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is violating the sovereignty of this country,” he said.
“And they attack people in mosques, blow up people in villages, in market places, they are violating the sovereignty of the country.”
Mr. Kerry said the U.S. was readying for the drawdown of its forces in Afghanistan and was preparing the ground for the Afghan presidential election next year. He made it clear that the U.S. will not completely pull out of Afghanistan next year, saying it was a “drawdown and not a withdrawal”. Mr. Kerry hoped the Afghan Taliban would return to negotiations as part of efforts to find a political solution to the Afghan problem. As an apparent sop to Pakistan, Mr. Kerry announced that the U.S. will resume the stalled strategic dialogue process over the next six months and also improve bilateral trade ties. — PTI
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