Pakistan's Foreign Minister (to Christiane Amanpour): Main Enemy is Insurgents, Not India

[Turborama]

Source: ABC

In an interview with "This Week" anchor Christiane Amanpour, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi states that extremism is a greater threat to Pakistan than neighboring India.

"Before the floods, we were focused on fighting the extremists and the insurgents within Pakistan," said Qureshi. "As far as India is concerned, yes, we have outstanding issues with India, and both sides have agreed that we can settle them through peaceful negotiations."

The Foreign Minister's comments come after news reports that Pakistan's chief spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), stated that for the first time in over 60 years, India was not considered the country's greatest threat.

"The immediate challenge is extremism, terrorism," Qureshi told Amanpour, acknowledging that the victims of the floods in Pakistan must be a top priority as well.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/pakistan-foreign-minister-main-enemy-insurgents-india/story?id=11432520

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Video at the link.

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Taliban the 'No1 threat to Pakistan'

08/19/2010

Fears were growing last night of a Taliban takeover of Pakistan.

The country's intelligence agency, the ISI, warned that "home-grown" Islamist militants are the greatest threat to national security, it was revealed yesterday.

It is the first time they have put the threat from militants ahead of a war with longterm rival India.

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/08/19/taliban-the-no1-threat-to-pakistan-115875-22497563/

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[SKKY]

2. I really want to believe, that that's what he believes...

...but I'm finding it hard.

[cosmicone]

3. Everyone is on to Pakistan's duplicitous behavior...

after they gorge on the aid and buy some more fighter jets, submarines and missiles, India will be top threat again.

[karynnj]

4. Though I doubt anyone would take this completely at face value,

that is what needs to happen to end the instability in the region. It also is what at least some American Democrats have pushed Pakistani leaders to do for the last few years. The fact is that the Pakistani government did take the fight to the Pakistani Taliban, resulting in millions of internally displaced refugees. You can argue that they were attacked because they were perceived as a threat to the government itself, but in the past, accomodations were made instead of fighting them.

As we in the JK group often seem to play "where in the world is John Kerry", you might be interested to know where the Boston Globe reported he spent his Wednesday - in Kandahar, then on to dinner in Pakistan with Pakistan's top general, Ashfaq Kiani and the troubled country's spy chief, Shuja Pasha. http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2010/08/kerry_meets_wit.html

Now, no one, Kerry. Obama, the state department, India ... will simply take this sentence as success in ending any ISI based support of the terrorists. Still - if Pakistan were to reform, this is a necessary step. Holbrooke and Kerry speaking in the SFRC a few weeks ago, spoke of how maybe the solution in Afghanistan was best achieved by improving the relations between India and Pakistan. There is no way that India could even be asked to improve relations if Pakistan were unwilling to not just say this, but to act on it. (One way to show they mean it is to use a significant number of the military they have at the India border to help with the disaster.)

[cosmicone]

5. Very well put. n/t

[karynnj]

7. Thanks - I do hope that you get that I do see this as potentially a very major change

in a positive direction.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[karynnj]

13. All? No country would leave no security at the border

I used the word "some". Your post here is offensive. If I wrote this about another culture or people, that you do not have a problem with - you would object.

One question I have for you is that if you find these people so hateful, why do you want them to be part of India?

[cosmicone]

14. By "all" I meant "all the excessive forces"

Secondly, nothing I stated in there is untrue -- those are the facts. If Cuba were to place missiles named "Osama" or "Pearl Harbor" pointed at the US, I doubt most Americans would see it as a gesture of a peace-loving country.

Thirdly, I never said I wanted them to be a part of India, I simply want them to give up this obsession with India, disarm to reasonable level and remain peaceful instead of having "conquering India" as a course in their military colleges and indoctrinating their youth into fundamentalism. No one would want Pakistan as a part of their country -- it is a massive economic liability.

Lastly, it is not culture or people I was referring to but philosophies of successive governments of Pakistan. After Jinnah, only two prime ministers of Pakistani wanted genuine peace with India -- Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. The former was hanged by the military and the latter was arrested and exiled by the military.

I don't think that in the long run, Pakistan would change and seek peace. Freedom to the people of Balochistan and Sindhudesh would be the answer.

Balochistan (Baluchistan) was originally not a part of Pakistan at the time of independence. It is a region conquered by the Pakistani army between 1948 and 1950. Baluchis are a completely different culture from the Punjabis of Pakistan and have been brutally oppressed with torture, disappearing people and blatant assassinations by the Pakistani forces.

Here are a lot of articles about how the conflict has evolved: http://www.balochvoice.com/bvoice/modules/articles/ and http://www.balochwarna.org/

In any event, it is in the interests of India and Indians to help Pakistan with this tragedy to build a much needed foundation of trust and cooperation. Towards that end, I hope John Kerry is successful.

[Uncle Joe]

6. I agree with your analysis, karynnj.

Kicked and recommended.

Thanks to Turborama for the thread.

[Turborama]

9. Thanks fore the thanks, Uncle Joe

& the K&R.

:hi:

[Turborama]

8. Interesting analysis and insight. Thank you for sharing it, karynnj

I'm going to have to come visit the JK group and keep up with what he's doing.

[karynnj]

10. Thanks - the JK group is my favorite place on the web

Please do come. It really is a very nice group.

[sabrina 1]

11. Thank you for that. I did read that Kerry was in Pakistan

yesterday and thought that was a very good sign. I hope that this disaster has made it clear to the Pakistani ISI who is causing most of their problems as he said. It is a start. For one thing, they now see that they cannot depend on extremists to put the needs of the people before their own.

As for U.S. policy over there, the very best thing they could do is to use our military to help save lives rather than destroy them. That would do more to minimize the influence of extremists than all the weapons in the world.

Let's hope wise leaders will prevail. This is a golden opportunity to change that entire region.