'New US president to completely review policy on Pakistan'

Washington, Oct 31 : One of the greatest foreign policy challenges for the next United States Administration is what to do about Pakistan, Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations has said.

"I think there will be a complete review of Pakistan policy on very short order once the new US President takes office," he said.

Addressing journalists at the Foreign Press Centre on Wednesday, Cook said he did not understand what the Bush Administration's policy on Pakistan was.

"It seems to me that the Bush Administration created this situation in Pakistan by going halves. It struck me that the template for the policy was similar to what our policy has traditionally been towards Egypt," Cook said.

"But nevertheless, we either should have supported former president Pervez Musharraf or we should have supported democratic change in Pakistan, not halfway on each one," he said.

Cook said that the new US president is going to take a 'fresh, hard look' at what the US policies are towards Pakistan, especially the policy of 'the not quite hot pursuit', but going in after suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda hideouts.

"And what effect that is having on the stability of Pakistan itself? There is some evidence to suggest that this is actually creating more difficulties for the US, more difficulties for the Pakistani Government," the Daily Times quoted Cook, as saying.

"So I would expect that once again, whether it is John McCain or Barack Obama, despite the fact that at the core of what Obama said, which is if they had Osama Bin Laden in their sights and he was in Pakistan, they would take him out," he added.

ANI