Pakistan refuses to extend 15-day deadline for closing Shamsi base
President Asif Ali Zardari has reportedly turned down a request to extend the 15-day deadline set by the Pakistan government for the US to vacate Shamsi airbase that is believed to be used by CIA-operated drones.
The request was made on Monday to Zardari by foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates, which has controlled the airbase in Balochistan province since the 1990s, media reports said on Tuesday.
Sheikh Abdullah arrived in Islamabad on Monday on an unscheduled visit and met Zardari and army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
His visit comes two days after the Pakistan government asked the US to vacate the airbase following a cross-border air strike by Nato aircraft from Afghanistan that killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers.
Official statements issued by the presidency and the military about Sheikh Abdullah's meetings made no mention of the issue of Shamsi airbase, which Pakistan leased to the UAE in 1992 for use for members of the emirates' royals flying in for hunting expeditions.
The UAE reportedly allowed the US to use the base for drone flights after the 9/11 terror attacks.
Media reports quoted Pakistani sources as saying that Zardari had turned down Sheikh Abdullah's request to review the government’s decision to ask the US to vacate the airbase or to extend the 15-day deadline given to the US.
During his meetings with Zardari and Kayani, the UAE foreign minister pleaded against pushing too hard for getting the airbase vacated, the Dawn newspaper reported.
The News quoted its sources as saying that Zardari had told Sheikh Abdullah that the government would follow the decision by the Defence Committee of the Cabinet to get the US to vacate the airbase.
Shamsi airbase, located 300 km from Balochistan capital Quetta, has been used as a launch pad for US drone strikes in Afghanistan and in Pakistan’s tribal belt.
The Pakistan government had earlier asked the US to leave the airbase in June after the American military raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad on May 2.
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Bonn conference: How significant is Pakistan’s absence?
Pakistan has already agreed to the draft of the Bonn conference, even though it is boycotting the key international gathering to be held in the German city from December 5.
However, Islamabad’s decision to stay away from the conference, which has been a year in the planning, is being seen as a setback to international efforts that seek to stabilise the war-torn country before Western forces pull out from Afghanistan by 2014.
Conference not expected to yield major breakthroughs
The conference was organised with the expectation that Washington and Kabul would have pinned down by then what their strategic relationship would look like after the departure of foreign combat troops, but talks on this have dragged on inconclusively.
Foreign ministry officials opposed boycott
Sources have said that senior foreign ministry officials were in favour of attending the Bonn conference. The officials were of the view that Pakistan must attend the conference at least at the ambassador-level, sources added.
Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar was to lead the Pakistani delegation at the conference to be attended by 90 countries as well as representatives from the United Nations to finalise a roadmap for post-war Afghanistan. “We should have attended the conference and used it to convey our concerns on the Nato attacks,” said a foreign office official while speaking on condition of anonymity.
It is believed that the security establishment has pushed for the boycott after the inadequate response from the US over the Nato air raid. The decision to boycott the Bonn conference was originally taken in the emergency meeting of the cabinet committee of defence just hours after the Nato attack. However, the announcement was delayed for a couple of days in the hope that Washington might come up with a convincing response to pacify the anger.
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Bonn conference: How significant is Pakistan’s absence?
Pakistan has already agreed to the draft of the Bonn conference, even though it is boycotting the key international gathering to be held in the German city from December 5.
However, Islamabad’s decision to stay away from the conference, which has been a year in the planning, is being seen as a setback to international efforts that seek to stabilise the war-torn country before Western forces pull out from Afghanistan by 2014.
A senior government official, who was supposed to be part of the Pakistani delegation at the conference, said Islamabad’s absence will only have a symbolic value. “We have already agreed to the draft of the Bonn conference,” said the official, who asked to remain anonymous. He maintained that Pakistan initially voiced concerns on certain points of the proposed draft but those reservations had been addressed.
Without going into details, the official pointed out that the government’s main area of concern was that the conference not be used as a forum to point fingers at Pakistan. “We have been assured that no such thing would be part of the final draft,” he said.
Conference not expected to yield major breakthroughs
Pakistan’s decision will also not be a major setback because few tangible results were expected at Bonn, despite the attendance of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other government ministers.
The conference was organised with the expectation that Washington and Kabul would have pinned down by then what their strategic relationship would look like after the departure of foreign combat troops, but talks on this have dragged on inconclusively.
Foreign ministry officials opposed boycott
Sources have said that senior foreign ministry officials were in favour of attending the Bonn conference. The officials were of the view that Pakistan must attend the conference at least at the ambassador-level, sources added.
Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar was to lead the Pakistani delegation at the conference to be attended by 90 countries as well as representatives from the United Nations to finalise a roadmap for post-war Afghanistan. “We should have attended the conference and used it to convey our concerns on the Nato attacks,” said a foreign office official while speaking on condition of anonymity.
It is believed that the security establishment has pushed for the boycott after the inadequate response from the US over the Nato air raid. The decision to boycott the Bonn conference was originally taken in the emergency meeting of the cabinet committee of defence just hours after the Nato attack. However, the announcement was delayed for a couple of days in the hope that Washington might come up with a convincing response to pacify the anger.
Pakistan snubs Afghan conference 
Without Pakistan, peace in Afghanistan and negotiations with the Taliban is not possible.
NATO attack: Pakistan to boycott Bonn Conference on Afghanistan
Pakistan to Boycott Meeting After NATO Raid
Pakistan will boycott the Bonn Conference, scheduled for December 5 on Afghanistan’s future, to protest the cross-border NATO attack, an official said on Tuesday.
Pakistani officials say the country will boycott an upcoming meeting in Germany on the future of Afghanistan to protest a deadly attack by U.S.-led forces on its troops.
The officials say the decision was taken during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday in the city of Lahore.
Washington views Islamabad as key to bringing about a reconciliation to end the decade-long Afghan war and allow the United States and its NATO partners to complete a military withdrawal by 2014.
If Pakistan bows out of the peace process, it "would hugely complicate the reconciliation process," said the senior U.S. official.
For Pakistan a break in ties risks an end to billions of dollars in U.S. military and development aid.
But an aid cutoff may affect the military less than Pakistan's civilian government, say senior Pakistani security officials. They say military aid under the Coalition Support Fund has been erratic and that Washington routinely holds up payments.
Kabul says Pakistan ‘important’ to Bonn conference.
Bonn meeting, which will bring together foreign ministers from around 100 countries to discuss commitments to the war-ravaged country after the withdrawal of Nato troops in 2014.
Afghanistan said Tuesday that Pakistan had an “important” role to play at the Bonn conference and expressed hope that Islamabad would reverse their decision to boycott the talks.
“We regard Pakistan as an important country in the region, we hope our Pakistani brothers will be there,” foreign ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai told AFP of the December 5 conference on Afghanistan’s future.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she was “very sorry” about Pakistan’s announced boycott of the conference next week on the future of Afghanistan and would try to convince it to attend.
Merkel said Germany would still “see what could be done to change” Islamabad’s decision to bow out of the meeting in the western German city, taken in protest at Nato air strikes which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
“We are both interested in constructive development of Afghanistan,” Merkel told reporters at a joint press conference with visiting King Abdullah II of Jordan.
“Which is why I consider the conference hosted by the (German) foreign minister to be very important. We always said that conflicts can only be resolved in the region and Pakistan is part of this region which is why we are very sorry that this cancellation came today.”
Merkel said that Berlin had not given up on convincing Islamabad to reverse its decision and attend the Bonn meeting, which will bring together foreign ministers from around 100 countries to discuss commitments to the war-ravaged country after the withdrawal of Nato troops in 2014.
“I understand Pakistan’s concern about the loss of human life due to Nato troops but this should not distract from the fact that this Afghanistan conference is a very, very important conference,” she said.
“There was a loya jirga (grand assembly) in Afghanistan and there is now a very, very good chance for a possible political process. On the one hand I can understand (the boycott) but on the other, we will see what still can be done.”
A Pakistani official told AFP that Islamabad would boycott Monday’s conference in Bonn over the deadly Nato air strikes at the weekend.
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