Washington: Pakistan’s foreign minister said Thursday that the United States would improve its public standing if it let Islamabad spearhead drone attacks.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, in Washington for high-level talks, acknowledged in a CNN interview that drone attacks by US forces against Islamic extremists on Pakistani soil have “taken out some valuable targets.”
But he said: “The issue of sovereignty is there. People of Pakistan feel strongly about it.”
“We want the ownership. We make the decision when to operate,” he said. “It will help improve the feelings in Pakistan.”
Asked if the United States had agreed to his request, he said: “I don’t think so.”
The United States has carried out nearly 100 attacks with unmanned drones in Pakistan since August 2008, killing more than 830 people. Figures range widely on how many civilians have been killed.
US authorities have given Pakistan surveillance drones but have hesitated at giving them lethal drones, which are run remotely by Americans.
US officials have long suspected that elements in Pakistan’s powerful intelligence service remain sympathetic to Islamic extremists and have tipped them off about impending attacks.
But Qureshi, meeting on Wednesday with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said that US suspicions about Pakistan have evaporated after the nation’s major offensive last year against homegrown Taliban.
Drone attacks, which kill targets without directly putting US lives at risk, enjoy wide support in Washington.
A legal expert however recently told Congress that the US refusal to spell out a rationale for drone attacks could lead foreign courts to prosecute Americans.
