US unilateral strikes can destabilize Pak

Islamabad, Jan 16 : Following recurrent reports in the American media that Washington was planning to launch unilateral strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas to crackdown on al Qaeda, Islamabad is learnt to have intensified its dialogue with the US to prevent any such move. It has reportedly told Washington that such strikes could inflict an irreparable loss to Pakistan's stability.

In the recent weeks, a few of the leading American media organisations have quoted some unidentified sources as saying US might be planning incursions in Waziristan and other restive tribal areas in Pakistan.

Officials in Islamabad have reportedly said that Pakistan was not willing to support any such unilateral action by the US and that it had made it clear that an unauthorized US attack on any Pakistani territory would be treated as an "invasion".

Pakistan's security brass is not taking such threats lightly, reported The Nation.

"Intense negotiations are underway between Pakistani officials and Bush administration to avert any strike from outside on suspected terrorist hideouts in the tribal belt," the paper quoted a senior official here as saying on condition of anonymity.

He further said that Pakistan had warned the Bush administration that incursions into the troubled FATA regions by the US forces could "undermine the very stability of Pakistan", which was one of major states in global war against terrorism.

The US media had reported that the Bush administration was deeply concerned over Al-Qaeda's resurgence in Pakistan's tribal belt and that it was pondering military strikes on its own to hunt down the militants.

One of the reports even suggested that President Bush's administration "is mulling a plan in which the Pentagon and CIA would be granted new authority to conduct secret operations in the tribal areas." It was discussed by Vice President Richard Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and top White House national security aides in the first week of 2008, when they met to reassess the US strategy in the wake of Benazir's death, reported the New York Times.

ANI