[After two and a half weeks of contentious negotiations, the main parties agreed on a four-page parliamentary resolution that, in addition to the drone demand, called on the Obama administration to apologize for American airstrikes in November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. It declared that “no overt or covert operations inside Pakistan shall be permitted” — a broad reference that could be interpreted to include all C.I.A. operations.]
By Salman Masood
And Declan Walsh
 |
Matiullah Achakzai/European Pressphoto Agency
Pakistan cut supply lines to NATO forces in
Afghanistan in November,
after American airstrikes killed 24 Pakistani
soldiers.
|
ISLAMABAD,
Pakistan — In a rare show of unity, the government and opposition joined on
Thursday to present the United States with a list of stringent demands,
including an immediate end to C.I.A. drone strikes, that were cast in
uncompromising words but could pave the way for a reopening of NATO supply lines through the country.
After
two and a half weeks of contentious negotiations, the main parties agreed on a
four-page parliamentary resolution that, in addition to the drone demand,
called on the Obama administration to apologize for American airstrikes in
November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. It declared that “no overt or
covert operations inside Pakistan shall be permitted” — a broad reference that
could be interpreted to include all C.I.A. operations.
But
on the issue of NATO supply lines, the resolution specified only that arms and
ammunition cannot be transported through Pakistan, opening the door to the
resumed delivery of critical Afghan war supplies like food and fuel for the
first time since the November airstrikes. And in practice, arms and ammunition
were rarely, if ever, transported in convoys through Pakistan.
“Today’s
resolution will enrich your respect and dignity; I assure you that we will get
these enforced in letter and spirit,” Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani told
Parliament, although he stopped short of declaring when the supply route would
reopen.
“We
are a responsible nation,” he said. “We know our obligations as well as the
importance of the United States.”
A
spokeswoman for the State Department, Victoria Nuland, praised the
“seriousness” of the Parliament’s debate and added: “We seek a relationship
with Pakistan that is enduring, strategic and more clearly defined. We look
forward to discussing these policy recommendations.”
Analysts
said the resolution, which is essentially nonbinding but establishes a
framework for private talks between senior American and Pakistani officials in
the coming weeks, signals a new, more pragmatic chapter in relations between
the two countries.
“This
makes it easier for the government to negotiate with the U.S.,” said Hasan
Askari Rizvi, a defense expert based in Lahore. “That is why the government
agreed to the opposition demand on drones.”
Still,
the demand for an “immediate cessation of drone strikes” has no easy solution.
In 2008 Parliament also demanded an end to drone strikes, only for the C.I.A. to
continue attacking Taliban and Al Qaeda targets in the tribal belt along the
Afghan border.
The
Obama administration considers the operations vital to disrupting terrorist and
insurgent networks as well as protecting American troops at war in Afghanistan.
For Pakistani politicians, however, drones have become a red-line domestic political
issue because of public outrage.
The
opposition, led by Nawaz
Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N party, agreed to back Thursday’s
resolution in Parliament only if it contained unequivocal language about
drones. The government agreed to the language because it needs broad
cross-party support to negotiate a reopening of NATO supply lines — a measure that
is privately considered necessary by the political and military leadership, but
which enjoys little support among the general public.
“Now
two things can happen,” Mr. Askari Rizvi said. “If the drone strikes continue,
it will embarrass the government. The other option is for the U.S. and Pakistan
to evolve a new framework for the use of drone
aircraft.”
Among
other measures, the resolution calls for the cessation of unauthorized American
military ingress onto Pakistani soil, even for “hot pursuit.”
It
states that “no private security contractors or intelligence operatives shall
be allowed” — a clear reference to longstanding popular fears that private
security contractors are infiltrating the country on behalf of the C.I.A.
The
resolution stressed that no verbal agreement regarding national security should
be entered into by the government and all such earlier agreements “shall cease
to have effect forthwith” — seemingly a reference to the way military deals
have been made with the United States in the past. It repeated Pakistan’s
desire to obtain a civil nuclear deal from the United States, like the one
awarded to India in 2005.
Other
clauses dealt with broader foreign policy issues and urged the government to
deepen its strategic partnership with China as well as strengthening relations
with Russia and the European Union.
It
urged Pakistan to actively pursue a gas pipeline project with Iran, despite
opposition by the United States.
Chaudhry
Nisar Ali Khan, the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, said
that all political parties wanted to have good relations with the United States
but that “it cannot be an imbalanced relationship.”
“You
cannot have a relationship which is tilted toward one country,” he said.
@ The New York Times
@ The New York Times
[On Friday, the satellite disintegrated in a different kind of fireworks. The rocket carrying it exploded midair about one minute after the liftoff, according to American, South Korean and Japanese officials. The rocket and satellite — which cost the impoverished country an estimated $450 million to build, according to South Korean government estimates — splintered into many pieces and plunged into the gray blue waters of the Yellow Sea.]
SEOUL,
South Korea — For the new North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un,
his government’s failure to
put a satellite into orbit on Friday was a $1 billion humiliation.
Mr.
Kim wanted to mark his ascension to top political power — timed with the
country’s biggest holiday in decades, the 100th birthday of his grandfather and
North Korean founder, Kim Il-sung — with fireworks, real and symbolic. And the
launching of its Kwangmyongsong, or Bright Shining Star, satellite was the
marquee event.
On
Friday, the satellite disintegrated in a different kind of fireworks. The
rocket carrying it exploded midair about one minute after the liftoff,
according to American, South Korean and Japanese officials. The rocket and
satellite — which cost the impoverished country an estimated $450 million to
build, according to South Korean government estimates — splintered into many
pieces and plunged into the gray blue waters of the Yellow Sea.
The
failed launching drew swift international condemnation, including the
suspension by the United States of food aid,
and raised concerns that the North might speed ahead with what satellite
photographs suggest are preparations for a nuclear test — the country’s third.
Despite
the embarrassing setback, Mr. Kim was installed hours after as the new head of
the national defense commission, his country’s highest state agency, during a
parliamentary meeting in the country’s capital, Pyongyang, on Friday. That was
the last among the top military, party and state posts that have been
transferred to him from his father, Kim Jong-il, who died in December.
For
the launching and probably other future tests, North
Korea has recently completed a brand new launch site near the
western border with China —
at a cost of $400 million according the South Korean estimates.
The
rocket reached only about 94 miles in altitude, far less than 310 miles
required to place a satellite into orbit and, as North Korean officials liked
to say, present “a gift” to the closest the North Koreans had to a heavenly
God: Kim Il-sung.
In
a socialist country steeped in the traditions of a Confucian dynasty, it is of
paramount import for the young leader, Mr. Kim, to embellish his rise to power
with events that showed his loyalty to his forefathers while demonstrating his
own abilities to lead, analysts said.
“The
main drive behind the rocket launch was domestic politics,” said Kim Yong-hyun,
a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul and a
visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced
International Studies in Washington. “They wanted to introduce the Kim Jong-un
era with a big celebratory bang. They wanted to make their people believe that
they were now a powerful nation.”
The
government, more famous for shutting off its country from the outside world,
had intensified the pre-launch publicity. It trumpeted the satellite program as
a key achievement of Mr. Kim, claiming that he had personally directed a
previous satellite launching in 2009. It also invited foreign journalists to
visit the launch site and command and control center.
The
result was more than a loss of face. North Korea lost 240,000 tons of food aid,
estimated to be worth $200 million, that Washington had promised in February
but then said it was canceling because of the announced rocket launch.
South
Korea did not lose the opportunity to jab at the North’s hurt pride.
“It
is very regrettable that North Korea is spending enormous resources on
developing nuclear and missile capabilities while ignoring the urgent welfare
issue of the North Korean people such as chronic food shortages,” said its
foreign minister, Kim Sung-hwan.
“It
is hard to imagine a greater humiliation,” a North Korea expert, Marcus Noland, said on his blog at the Web site of the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics in
Washington.
“The
North Koreans have managed in a single stroke to not only defy the U.N.
Security Council, the United States and even their patron China, but also
demonstrate ineptitude,” Mr. Noland said. “Some of the scientists and engineers
associated with the launch are likely facing death or the gulag as scapegoats
for this embarrassment.”
Launch
failures are not uncommon even for rich and technologically advanced nations.
But in the myth-filled world of the Kim family, there is little room for
failure. The North’s two previous attempts to put a satellite into orbit
failed, according to American officials, but both times the government insisted
that the satellites were circling the earth and broadcasting songs about its
great leaders.
This
time, it had to admit to failure, analysts said, because of the presence of so
many foreign reporters and because neighboring countries were watching the
much-anticipated launch more closely than ever. On Friday, the North’s Central
TV interrupted its regular programs to report the news. While this indicated
that the government was not withholding the political embarrassment from its
people, foreign reporters in Pyongyang said four long hours of eerie silence
passed before the government admitted to its abortive launch.
Still,
analysts warned, it was not a time for the North’s critics to gloat.
The
North’s admission “suggests that, although a major setback to North Korea’s
plan to celebrate Kim Il-sung’s centenary with a demonstration of hi-tech
prowess, it is not such an embarrassment that they would try to deny it,” said
John Delury, a North Korea expert at Yonsei University in Seoul. “There will be
more propaganda opportunities over the weekend that perhaps can make up for the
satellite’s fizzle.”
One
question that Friday’s failed launch raises is: Where will the new leadership
turn now for a much needed legitimization of Mr. Kim’s dynastic succession?
“Now
it has become more certain that North Korea will raise tensions and go ahead
with its third nuclear test to recover some of its lost face, especially if the
United States pushes for more sanctions,” said Cheong Seong-chang, an analyst
at Sejong Institute.
By
going ahead with its launching, North Korea defied international warnings of
censure and further isolation. The United States and its allies had called it a
provocative pretext for developing an intercontinental ballistic missile that
might one day carry a nuclear warhead.
Officials
from Japan, South Korea and the United States, which had been monitoring for
signs of the launching, condemned it as a belligerent act that endangered
regional stability — even though it had failed. American officials said food
aid that they had planned to send to North Korea to help feed its malnourished
population would be suspended.
Martin Fackler
contributed reporting from Tokyo, Rick Gladstone and William J. Broad from New
York, Mark Landler and Thom Shanker from Washington, and David E. Sanger from
Cambridge, Mass.
