The US is shifting its drones from Pakistan to Afghanistan after Islamabad asked it to shut down UAV bases on its territory, but America has vowed to continue attacking 'targets' in Pakistan's tribal areas. Pakistan has asked the CIA to remove its personnel from the Shamsi airbase, about 350 kms southwest of Baluchistan's capital Quetta, where some of the drones are based, say senior American officials quoted in numerous Asian news agencies.
"The withdrawal has not occurred but is expected soon," one official said adding that the drone attacks would then be flown out of Afghanistan where some of them are already based.
But even after shifting, the Predators and Reapers, top US military commander, Admiral Mike Mullen, in a private meeting in Islamabad last week told Pakistan's army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani that the CIA would not reduce the drone strikes until Pakistan launched a 'military operation' against the Haqqani network in North Waziristan. The systematic humiliation of Pakistan by the US militarists is accelerating. It is also disastrous and self-defeating. Nothing new there, then.
"The withdrawal has not occurred but is expected soon," one official said adding that the drone attacks would then be flown out of Afghanistan where some of them are already based.
But even after shifting, the Predators and Reapers, top US military commander, Admiral Mike Mullen, in a private meeting in Islamabad last week told Pakistan's army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani that the CIA would not reduce the drone strikes until Pakistan launched a 'military operation' against the Haqqani network in North Waziristan. The systematic humiliation of Pakistan by the US militarists is accelerating. It is also disastrous and self-defeating. Nothing new there, then.
Pakistan is telling Karzai to semi-sever his ties with the West.
ReplyDeleteDecision time is fast approaching.