Washington:
Pakistani Ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani has told NDTV that British Prime Minister Cameron's remarks will not affect Pakistan-UK relations. Ambassador Haqqani also spoke about how the repercussions of WikiLeaks expose's are being felt all over the subcontinent.
The WikiLeaks of classified military documents highlighted the Pakistani ISI's close working relationship with the Taliban, which the US and Pakistan are supposedly fighting-a nexus India has been pointing out for years.
NDTV: Ambassador, Pakistan has denied and rejected the WikiLeaks leaks, so I am not going to waste time getting into that however you can't deny that they have cast a shadow on Pakistan's relationship with the US here, does it feel like you have crash landed after the high of pulling off the 4th successful strategic dialogue?
Husain Haqqani: We have the 5th strategic dialogue talks coming up in October. Quite clearly the strategic dialogue has not crashed, but will continue. The WikiLeaks episode is more of an issue for the United States to determine how documents that they had classified got leaked. And it of course, is a little media event, out of the 92,000 documents only 80 refer to the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence, and only 30 of them are particularly negative about the ISI with undocumented reports which are basically field reports unprocessed initial reports which often prove wrong, so I don't think that this is something that will cause any rupture in US-Pakistan relations on a permanent basis. That said, there are people in the United States, as there are in India, that remain wary of Pakistan and Pakistan's approach in the region. We intend to prove them wrong through our actions.
NDTV: Ambassador, the Obama administration and Pakistan may claim that there is no impact but it has enraged public opinion in America. That is a serious worry for you.
Haqqani: I do not see American public opinion particularly enraged on the particularities of the WikiLeaks episode. I think it is going to be the greater concern of US public opinion and not what a few of those documents say about Pakistan. That has already been discussed in the international media on more occasion than one and been discussed sufficiently.
NDTV: Senator Reed, Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, who visited Pakistan this month said, "The burden of proof is on the government of Pakistan and the ISI to show that they don't have ongoing contacts with the Taliban." What would you say to that?
Haqqani: Pakistan's intelligence services, Pakistan's military, and Pakistan's government have taken a very clear stand against terrorism and extremism. Over the last two years, more Pakistanis have died fighting terrorism than any other country's military. We have already proven our sincerity in fighting terrorism through our actions. I don't think that we will engage in a debate with anyone: an individual legislator in the United States, an individual political figure in India or for that matter any of our individual critics in the region. Time will prove that Pakistan made a clear choice, and our choice was to rid our entire region and the world of terrorism, and we will not endure terrorist attacks in any part of the world, including in any of our neighboring countries.
The WikiLeaks of classified military documents highlighted the Pakistani ISI's close working relationship with the Taliban, which the US and Pakistan are supposedly fighting-a nexus India has been pointing out for years.
NDTV: Ambassador, Pakistan has denied and rejected the WikiLeaks leaks, so I am not going to waste time getting into that however you can't deny that they have cast a shadow on Pakistan's relationship with the US here, does it feel like you have crash landed after the high of pulling off the 4th successful strategic dialogue?
Husain Haqqani: We have the 5th strategic dialogue talks coming up in October. Quite clearly the strategic dialogue has not crashed, but will continue. The WikiLeaks episode is more of an issue for the United States to determine how documents that they had classified got leaked. And it of course, is a little media event, out of the 92,000 documents only 80 refer to the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence, and only 30 of them are particularly negative about the ISI with undocumented reports which are basically field reports unprocessed initial reports which often prove wrong, so I don't think that this is something that will cause any rupture in US-Pakistan relations on a permanent basis. That said, there are people in the United States, as there are in India, that remain wary of Pakistan and Pakistan's approach in the region. We intend to prove them wrong through our actions.
NDTV: Ambassador, the Obama administration and Pakistan may claim that there is no impact but it has enraged public opinion in America. That is a serious worry for you.
Haqqani: I do not see American public opinion particularly enraged on the particularities of the WikiLeaks episode. I think it is going to be the greater concern of US public opinion and not what a few of those documents say about Pakistan. That has already been discussed in the international media on more occasion than one and been discussed sufficiently.
NDTV: Senator Reed, Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, who visited Pakistan this month said, "The burden of proof is on the government of Pakistan and the ISI to show that they don't have ongoing contacts with the Taliban." What would you say to that?
Haqqani: Pakistan's intelligence services, Pakistan's military, and Pakistan's government have taken a very clear stand against terrorism and extremism. Over the last two years, more Pakistanis have died fighting terrorism than any other country's military. We have already proven our sincerity in fighting terrorism through our actions. I don't think that we will engage in a debate with anyone: an individual legislator in the United States, an individual political figure in India or for that matter any of our individual critics in the region. Time will prove that Pakistan made a clear choice, and our choice was to rid our entire region and the world of terrorism, and we will not endure terrorist attacks in any part of the world, including in any of our neighboring countries.
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