Gates says propaganda tainting US image in Pakistan available (Roundup)

Jan 22, 2010, 10:28 GMT

Islamabad - US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that 'an organized propaganda campaign' was under way to taint Pakistani people's perceptions of the United States while assuring the South Asian country that ties between the two nations were based on 'common interests and mutual respect.'

'The United States does not want to covet a single inch of Pakistani soil,' Gates told Pakistani military officers at the National Defence University while on a visit to Islamabad.

Many Pakistanis are sceptical of the US presence in the region, believing it is part of a hegemonic design to occupy both Afghanistan and Pakistan and take control of the strategic assets of the world's sole Muslim nuclear power - Pakistan.

'We seek no military bases here, and we have no desire to control Pakistan's nuclear weapons,' Gates said.

Earlier in the day, he said Pakistan's leadership was to decide for itself whether the country needed to expand its anti-Taliban campaign along the Afghan border.

'Pakistan is a sovereign country, and it is up to Pakistan when and where to launch an operation,' the defence secretary told reporters in Islamabad.

The remarks came hours after Pakistan's chief military spokesman ruled out any new offensive in the next six to 12 months, saying the military needed time to consolidate its gains.

Pakistan is under growing pressure to expand an ongoing offensive in the South Waziristan tribal district to adjacent North Waziristan, a stronghold of militants associated with the insurgent group known as the Haqqani network.

'We [Washington and Islamabad] are in the same car on the issue, but Pakistan is in a driving seat, having its foot on the accelerator,' Gates said.

The tribal belt is described as the hub of global terrorism from which al-Qaeda and Taliban militants mount deadly assaults on Western forces operating in Afghanistan.

Gates said at the National Defence University that both countries had common enemies along the Afghan border as the Pakistani Taliban operated in collusion with al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

'Only by pressuring all of these groups on both sides of the border will Afghanistan and Pakistan be able to rid themselves of this scourge - to destroy those who promote the use of terror here and abroad,' Gates said.

The United States has stepped up missile strikes on militant hideouts in Pakistan's rugged tribal areas in recent months, particularly after a suicide attack on a US intelligence centre in eastern Afghanistan killed seven US Central Intelligence Agency agents on December 30.

A video of the Jordanian bomber's farewell message appeared within days. In the video, he was shown sitting next to Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, giving credence to the strengthening links between al-Qaeda and Pakistani militants.

Pakistan publicly opposes the US drone attacks, complaining that they violate its territorial sovereignty and fuel support for the militants.

Islamabad has been asking Washington to provide it with drones so that its forces could take out the hostile targets themselves, removing US involvement in the fight inside the tribal region.

Gates confirmed that the US was considering providing unarmed pilotless aircraft to Pakistan for reconnaissance missions.

The Pentagon chief also said he regretted that the United States severed defence ties with Pakistan in the 1990s after the US-supported Afghan resistance defeated Soviet forces. He described the move as 'a grave strategic mistake.'

However, he assured that now, the US was fully committed to a stable, long-term and enduring friendship with Pakistan, a key ally in its fight against the Taliban.