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Mullen meets Gilani, Kayani to defuse tensions

ISLAMABAD: The top U.S. military official held meetings with the Pakistani Prime Minister and the Army chief in an apparent bid to defuse the escalating tension between the two countries in the “war on terror”, but it was unclear if he had succeeded in his mission.

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, flew here on an unscheduled visit on Tuesday night after days of aggressive statements from the Pakistan military warning it would not tolerate American incursions into its territory.

On Wednesday, after his meetings with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the U.S. Embassy issued a brief statement that Admiral Mullen reiterated the U.S. commitment “to respect Pakistan’s sovereignty and to develop further U.S.-Pakistani cooperation and coordination on these critical issues that challenge the security and well-being of the people of both countries”.

Admiral Mullen’s visit came after an angry statement by General Kayani that “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country will be defended at all cost and no external force is allowed to conduct operations inside Pakistan”.

The first two weeks of September saw five unilateral strikes by the U.S. in the tribal areas, including a ground incursion reported to have been jointly carried out by U.S. Navy Seals and CIA and a missile strike on a madrasa belonging to Jaluddin Haqqani, a Taliban leader with close links to Pakistan, and also linked by U.S. intelligence to the attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul.

General Kayani’s statement against these strikes was followed up with threats of retaliation by the military. Earlier this week, an incident was reported in which Pakistani soldiers in Waziristan, backed by tribes, fired at the U.S. troops across the border to prevent them from crossing over. Both the Pentagon and the Pakistan military denied the incident.

The Air Force has also been flying what a military spokesman described as “reconnaissance” flights over the tribal area, which the Pakistani media has reported as a move by the military to defend the borders.

It is not clear if the Mullen visit has helped to bring down the temperature, or if the Americans has agreed that it will not carry out any more unilateral strikes in Pakistani territory. There was no statement from the Pakistan government.

“The conversations were extremely frank, positive, and constructive,” the U.S. Embassy release noted.

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