NRO dispute no threat to US interests: Holbrooke
WASHINGTON: The United States views the NRO dispute as a ‘tremendous political drama’, which has so far not affected US national security interests but has caused Washington to watch it ‘very carefully’, says Richard Holbrooke.
Mr Holbrooke, America’s special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, also acknowledged in an interview to a private US television channel that the Obama administration faced a dilemma in dealing with Pakistan as unlike Afghanistan it could not send its troops there to fight Al Qaeda and Taliban in Fata and needed to find other means to tackle them.
‘Even as we talk, there’s a major political drama unfolding in Islamabad right now. It’s something that we’re watching very carefully,’ said Mr Holbrooke while discussing the current political situation in Pakistan.
This ‘tremendous political drama’, according to him, involves the PPP, PML-N, the Punjab province, the Pakistani military under General Ashfaq Kayani, the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the public opinion.
‘And how it is going to come out remains to be seen,’ he added. ‘So far it has had no effect on our national security interests, but it’s something that we’re watching very carefully.’
Explaining the NRO dispute to the American public, Mr Holbrooke recalled that ‘President Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto cut a deal (and Mr Musharraf) passed a decree … which gave amnesty to all members of Ms Bhutto’s party, including her husband and herself’.
The deal, he said, enabled Benazir to come back but she met a tragic outcome and her husband became president of the country.
Mr Holbrooke, however, did not mention the role the US played in arranging the deal and jumped straight to the current situation, observing that the NRO lapsed as Pakistani parliament did not reaffirm it.
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