PM leaves for Kabul to condole Rabbani’s assassination

Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Thursday left here for Kabul to condole with Afghanistan’s leadership over the death of Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani, Chairman of High Peace Council. Talking to reporters prior his departure, Gilani described Prof Rabbani “a personal friend and a great leader of Afghan people” and said it would be hard to fill the vacuum caused by his death. He recalled two of his very successful meetings to discuss the peace process with Prof. Rabbani and said his leadership was acceptable both to Pakistan and Afghanistan. He said the late Afghan leader had convinced the Afghan government that Pakistan was a friend of Afghanistan.

Pakistan brushes aside US allegations of waging proxy war

Pakistan has said that it was not waging proxy war against any country. Foreign office spokesperson Tehmina Janjua in a weekly briefing on Thursday told media the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was not waging proxy war and the Haqqani network was not being used as proxy. Brushing aside US allegations of regarding Haqqani’s presence in Pakistan she said the issues had been raised with the United States on military and State Department levels. “If they have any evidence in this regard they should share with us,” she said. The spokesperson said that Pakistan condemned act of terrorism that take place in Pakistan, Afghanistan or any other country and was determined to fight against terrorism.

Sattar terms Wikileaks May 12 allegations baseless

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Farooq Sattar has termed the Wikileaks allegations regarding May 12, 2007 carnage as baseless. Speaking at a news conference here on Thursday the MQM leader said that his party was not involved in the May 12 incident instead it was itself a victim. “ May 12 was a conspiracy against the MQM”, he said, adding that 14 party workers were killed and 50 wounded in the carnage. The allegations that have been attributed to me are baseless and I reject them.

U.S. says ISI supported Kabul embassy attack

The Haqqani militant network is a "veritable arm" of Pakistan's powerful ISI intelligence service, which supported the group as it launched a startling attack last week on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, the top U.S. military officer said on Thursday. "The Haqqani network ... acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency," Admiral Mike Mullen, who steps down this month as chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in prepared remarks to a U.S. Senate panel. The Haqqani network is one of three -- and perhaps the most feared -- allied insurgent factions fighting U.S.-led NATO and Afghan troops under the Taliban banner in Afghanistan. "With ISI support, Haqqani operatives planned and conducted (a September 11) truck bomb attack, as well as the assault on our embassy," Mullen said. "We also have credible intelligence that they were behind the June 28 attack against the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul and a host of other smaller but effective operations."

We will veto Palestinian statehood bid : Obama

Latest News / Washington: President Barack Obama told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday that U.N. action would not achieve a Palestinian state and the United States would veto any Security Council move to recognize Palestinian statehood, the White House said.”We would have to oppose any action at the U.N.

Security Council including, if necessary, vetoing,’Ben Rhodes, the White House national security council spokesman, told reporters after Obama met Abbas in New York.

Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to Abbas and former chief of negotiations, said before the meeting with Obama that Abbas had no plans to agree to a delayed vote on U.N. membership.

Obama echoed comments earlier by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said direct negotiation was the only way to achieve a stable Middle East peace and the Palestinian effort to secure U.N. recognition of statehood “will not succeed.”

Netanyahu made the remarks at a meeting with Obama, who reiterated the unwavering U.S. commitment to Israel and told world leaders gathered at the U.N.

General Assembly that efforts to impose peace on Israel and the Palestinians would not work

US not serious about statehood for Palestine: Faisal

Obama and Netanyahu spoke at the start of a meeting the two leaders had on the sidelines of the U.N. session.

Obama sought to head off a showdown over Palestinian statehood and pull his Middle East policy back from the brink of diplomatic disaster, Obama told the U.N.

General Assembly, “There is no shortcut to the end of a conflict that has endured for decades, meanwhile “Observer Islamic Countries” spokesman condemn U.S.stand against the effort of Palestinian state and said US not serious about statehood for Palestine talking with US news agency Faisal Muhammed said Obamas statement shows that still he is not ready for meaningful help to resolve Palestine issue. – EPakistanNews / UNN

US Senate ties Pakistan aid to Haqqani crackdown

WASHINGTON:- A US Senate committee voted on Wednesday to make economic and security aid to Pakistan conditional on its cooperation in fighting militants such as the Haqqani network, which Washington blames for last week’s attack on the US embassy in Kabul.
The Senate Appropriations Committee decision reflected lawmakers’ anger at Islamabad over militants who operate out of Pakistan and battle US troops in Afghanistan.
Washington has pressed Pakistan to go after the Haqqani network, which it believes enjoys sanctuaries in Pakistan’s unruly ethnic Pashtun tribal region on the Afghan border.
The Senate committee did not specify any amount for economic aid to Pakistan for fiscal 2012, leaving it up to the Obama administration to set the level and notify Congress – or provide nothing at all.
“If the administration wants to provide zero, that’d be OK with us,” said Republican Senator Mark Kirk, one of the more vocal critics of Pakistan on the panel.
The committee did approve $1 billion for the Pakistan Counter-insurgency Capability Fund, which was created in 2009 to help Pakistan’s military develop counter-insurgency capabilities to fight Islamist militants within its borders.
But the committee voted to make this aid, as well as any economic aid that is provided, conditional on Pakistan’s cooperating with Washington against several militant groups.
In addition to the Haqqani network, these groups include al Qaeda and the Quetta Shura – the remains of the Afghan Taliban government overthrown and driven into Pakistan by the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
They also include Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Punjab-based group blamed for attacks on Mumbai, India, in November 2008.
The restrictions were part of a foreign aid bill that the committee approved and sent to the Senate floor. It will have to be reconciled with the House of Representatives, where lawmakers in one subcommittee have voted similar restrictions.
Pakistan also gets US military aid via the Pentagon budget. But Washington is already withholding $800 million of that aid this year as ties have come under mounting strain.
Many lawmakers have been calling for aid to Pakistan to be reduced since US special forces found and killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin laden in a Pakistan military town on May 2.
Washington has allocated about $20 billion for Pakistan over the last decade. In fiscal 2010, Congress approved $1.7 billion for economic aid for Pakistan, and $2.7 billion in security aid, the Congressional Research Service says

Former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani has been killed

Former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani has been killed > Afghan High Peace Council Chief Burhanuddin Rabbani has been killed with some other people in a bomb attack in Kabul, official sources.

Mr. Burhanuddin Rabbani was killed at his home by a suicide attacker who officials believe had hidden away a bomb in his turban.

He was meeting members of the Taliban at the time. The council leads Afghan efforts to discuss with the Taliban.

Rabbani was a former president of Afghanistan and also lead the main political opposition in the country.

A senior adviser to the peace council, Masoom Stanakzai, is also thought to have been seriously wounded in the attack.

President Karzai said: “This is a sad day for us in Afghanistan but a day of unity and day of continuity for our efforts.”

Abdullah Abdullah, the leader of the opposition in the Afghan parliament, said Mr Rabbani’s killing was “a big loss for all the people of Afghanistan”, describing the former president as a man who “strove until his last breath to bring peace”.

Nato and the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) condemned the attack, with Isaf commander Gen John R Allen saying that “the face of the peace initiative has been attacked”.

Rabbani was formerly leader of a powerful mujahideen party during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and served as president in the 1990s when mujahideen factions waged war for control of the country after the Soviet withdrawal.

The assassination comes a week after a 20-hour gun and grenade attack that on Kabul’s diplomatic enclave by insurgents, and three suicide bomb attacks on other parts of the city — together the longest-lasting and most wide-ranging assault on the city.

Last week’s siege was the third major attack on the Afghan capital since June and included three suicide bombing in other parts of the city. At least five policemen and 11 civilians were killed.