‘Drones multiply militants’ – Pakistani FM

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Published time: February 09, 2012 07:41
Edited time: February 09, 2012 13:50

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American drones hitting targets on Pakistani territory is illegal, and involvement of the Pakistani spy agencies with Taliban not even worthy of comment, said Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, exclusive to RT.

Attacks by US drones on Pakistani territory are illegal and cannot be tolerated, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told RT. In a recent development, a US drone strike killed three suspected militants in the Pakistani northwest tribal region, AP news agency reports on Thursday. On Wednesday nine people were killed in another attack, including some Taliban fighters. These follow tensions between the Pakistani government and the US administration over American air strikes last year that accidentally killed 24 Pakistani troops.

According to the minister, the US attacks promote extremist moods in the region.

“Drones are not only completely illegal and unlawful and have no authorization to be used within the domains of international law but even more importantly, they are counter-productive to the objective of getting this region rid of militancy, and terrorism and extremism,” Hina Rabbani Khar said. “Because if one strike leads to getting you target number one or target number three today, you are creating five more targets or 10 more targets in the militancy that it breeds, in the fodder that it gives to the militants to attract more people to join their ranks.”

“We are today in Pakistan suffering from the consequences of what many other powers of the world decided to do in that region to rid itself of the challenge that appeared in 1979, which was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan,” she added. “In trying to deal with that we have created certain groups which are today a challenge to everybody.”

Allegations that the Pakistani security forces maintain close contact with Taliban and even sponsor them are old and do not even “worth a comment,” Hina Rabbani Khar told RT.

“I think every intelligence agency in the world maintains ties with one group or the other and all of them at some level,” she said. “These ties are now pretty much out at the open because people are openly talking about talking to these people. This is something which is not even worth a comment.”

Comments (8)

RosarioGIBSON (unregistered) 25.10.2012 03:16

According to my monitoring, billions of persons all over the world receive the mortgage loans at different banks. Thus, there's good possibilities to receive a short term loan in all countries.

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LDR_ONE 09.02.2012 19:18

Mr. Hand wrote in #5
Wait a minute, doesn't Pakistan have nukes and a large army? They have modern F-16s with working radar, the drones used are not stealth drones so they should be able to locate them easily. And with even all that firepower they can't stop a silly drone?........
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Most countries have a government that has a military. In Pakistan, its a military that has a government. No joke. The military functions almost complete ly independentl y of the country. At a whim, the military will execute regime change or put the country under martial law. This system has kept Pakistan sovere ign for a long time, as the military has the countrys interests at heart...while politicians...
Bu t the reason Pakistan "protests" but nothing happens is because the CIA and ISI have reached some sort of agreement permitting these attacks. The civilian Pakistani government "protests, expresses anger, ect"....as should any government reacting to a foreign intervention without diplomatic support for it. But because the government answers to the military, their anger over it can only go so far. Pakistan receives billions from Washington in military aid every year. Since that money goes to the military, and they call the shots, you can see how the "drone deal" works out.
Recent outrage by Pakistan against the USA over the accidental airstike on one of the Pakistani army outposts is proof of this. Their military gets very upset when some of their own are killed. they had to send a message to the west, but they still allow CIA/ISI drone attacks, because stopping them would cut off billions $$$ of aid to the military.

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Andrew (unregistered) 09.02.2012 15:42

"a US drone strike killed three suspected militants in the Pakistani northwest tribal region, AP news agency reports on Thursday"

To any US citizens who might still think that when their local news agencies refer to "suspected militants", "targets", "suspected terrorists" et cetera, that those terms imply any likelihood of guilt or malice on the part of the dead, imagine this situation unfolding in a police station near you:

"We found three suspects for that murder case last week-"
"Kill them!"
"Okay, they're dead. Oh wait, it turns out they all had very reputable alibis for the whole day, but good news is we found a couple more suspects-"
"Kill them!"
etc.

No lineups, no questionings, no courts, just mass-murder paid for by you. Replace the BS labels by western news agencies with more accurate ones like "humans" or "men, women and children".

Th e comments by the Pakistani Foreign Minister come as no surprise or news, as revenge for lost loved-ones is one of the most famous motivations for people in oppressed countries to go to war.

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