After watching from the sidelines for a few weeks, the United States raised objections to Pakistan’s efforts to negotiate a peace deal with militants in the tribal areas. In a written testimony submitted to a congressional panel, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte also indicated that Islamabad did not consult Washington before making the new peace move as the US learned about it from the media. US officials had so far been expressing reservations about the deal, reminding Islamabad that a similar effort by the Musharraf government in 2006 only helped militants regroup and rearm. The US media also had quoted unnamed official sources as saying that Washington has conveyed its opposition to the proposed deal to Islamabad. But so far, Mr Negroponte is the first senior US official to acknowledge publicly that the United States not only has concerns about the deal but also conveyed its concerns to Pakistan. In the same paragraph, Mr Negroponte, however, assures Pakistan’s new leaders that the US opposition to the proposed deal should not be seen as a rejection of the country’s democratic set-up.
US UNEASE OVER PEACE DEAL
After watching from the sidelines for a few weeks, the United States raised objections to Pakistan’s efforts to negotiate a peace deal with militants in the tribal areas.
