The United States continues to focus on Pakistan for a military base in the region, although some American officials believe the negotiations have reached an impasse for now, The New York Times reported on Monday.
\nThe US intelligence agency CIA did use a base in Pakistan to launch drone strikes against militants but \u201cwas kicked out of the facility in 2011, when US relations with Pakistan unraveled,\u201d the report adds.
\n\u201cSome American officials (told the newspaper) that negotiations with Pakistan had reached an impasse for now. Others have said the option remains on the table and a deal is possible,\u201d the report explains.
\nAccording to NYT, William J. Burns, the CIA director, recently made an unannounced visit to Islamabad to meet the chief of the Pakistani military and the head of the directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence. US Defence Secretary Lloyd J. Austin also has had frequent calls with the Pakistani military chief about getting the country\u2019s help for future US operations in Afghanistan.
\nMr Burns did not bring up the base issue during his trip to Pakistan as the visit focused on broader counterterrorism cooperation but \u201csome of Mr Austin\u2019s discussions have been more direct,\u201d the report adds.
\nAnalysing Pakistan\u2019s reluctance in offering a base to the US, the report notes that \u201cthe government in Islamabad is unlikely to sign off on any US strikes against the Taliban that are launched from a base in Pakistan.\u201d
\nYet, \u201csome American officials believe Pakistan wants to allow US access to a base if it can control how it is used,\u201d the report adds while pointing out that \u201cpublic opinion in the country has been strongly against any renewed presence by the United States.\u201d
\nThe report also quotes from Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi\u2019s speech in the parliament last month, saying that \u201cno US base will be allowed by Prime Minister Imran Khan so long he is in power\u201d.
\nThe report points out that the CIA used the Shamsi air base in Balochistan to carry out hundreds of drone strikes during a surge that began in 2008. The strikes focused primarily on suspected Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan\u2019s mountainous tribal areas, but they also crossed the border into Afghanistan.
\nThe report notes that Pakistan\u2019s government \u201crefused to publicly acknowledge that it was allowing the CIA operations and \u201cwill want to proceed cautiously\u201d with a new relationship.
\nThe report claims that in discussions with American officials, \u201cthe Pakistanis have demanded a variety of restrictions in exchange for the use of a base in the country, and they have effectively required that they sign off on any targets that either the CIA or the military would want to hit inside Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United States continues to focus on Pakistan for a military base in the region, although some American officials believe the negotiations have reached an impasse for now, The New York Times reported on Monday. The US intelligence agency CIA did use a base in Pakistan to launch drone strikes against militants but \u201cwas kicked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196741,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-196722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n