WASHINGTON: President Asif Ali Zardari has voiced the hope that incoming Barack Obama administration would recognize Pakistan’s key antiterrorism role as well as understand the fact that his South Asian country has been a victim of terrorism.
“We think we need a new dialogue, and we’re hoping that the new (U.S.) government will understand that Pakistan has done more than they recognize and is a victim of the same insurgency the United States is fighting,” he said in an interview with The Washington Post published Sunday.
In the Post interview, President Zardari expressed his disapproval of the U.S. drone attacks on Pakistani areas along the Afghan border and urged Washington to provide the predator technology to Pakistan to enhance the ally’s ability to fight terrorism instead of carrying out cross-border attacks.
Rather than using U.S. Predator‑fired missiles against Pakistani territory, he asked, why not give Pakistan its own Predators? “Give them to us… we are your allies,” he said.
He said Pakistan receives “no prior notice” of the airstrikes and that he disapproves of them.
Such unilateral strikes, he said, harm efforts to win hearts and minds of the people. The United States should equip the country with sophisticated weapons to help its forces fight terrorists more effectively, the President observed.
He also pointed out the sensitivity of civilian deaths. “If the damage is women and children, then the sensitivity of its effect increases,” the President said.
“The U.S. ‘point of view,’ he said, is that the attacks are good for everybody. Our point of view is that it is not good for our position of winning the hearts and minds of people.”
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