US confident Pakistan military committed to civilian rule

THE STANS

Clinton phones Pakistan amid crisis: Islamabad
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton phoned Pakistani leaders Saturday ahead of a protest march on the capital which risks further destabilising the nuclear-armed nation, local officials said. Her separate telephone conversations with President Asif Ali Zardari and main opposition leader Nawaz Sharif marked the most senior foreign intervention yet in the crisis. Clinton reassured the embattled Zardari about continued US support for his democratic government, the Pakistani presidency said. "Mrs Clinton also discussed the prevailing situation in Pakistan and said the US was keen to see a stable and democratic system strengthened in the country," a statement said. "The president thanked Mrs Clinton for US support to Pakistan," it added. Siddiqul Farooq, a spokesman for the Pakistan Muslim League-N, told AFP that the US Secretary of State called Sharif and "discussed the current situation," without providing any further details. A US embassy spokesman in Islamabad said he could neither confirm nor deny meetings or conversations. Top US and British diplomats have intervened personally with leaders in Pakistan -- a key ally in the "war on terror" -- in recent days, urging the parties to resolve differences through negotiations, officials have said. Thousands of lawyers and opposition workers plan to hold an anti-government protest in Islamabad to demand that Zardari act on promises to reinstate judges sacked by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf. The government has arrested hundreds of people, banned rallies and cordoned off key roads in main cities to prevent the march from reaching Islamabad. (AFP file image)

by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) March 14, 2009
The top US military commander has expressed confidence that his Pakistani counterpart, General Ashfaq Kiyani, is committed to civilian rule and is not plotting a military takeover.

"He is committed to a civilian government, he is committed to the democracy that's there," Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen told PBS television Friday.

"And in my view, the last thing in the world he wants to do is take over as President Musharraf did."

Pervez Musharraf, a former Pakistani army chief of staff ousted elected prime minister Nawaz Sharif in a 1999 coup. He resigned as Pakistan's president last August.

Mullen said the Pakistani military wanted to stay out of politics, and Kiyani wants to do what is right for his country.

He note that Kiyani recognized the gravity of the situation due to the fact that the Taliban and other extremists were using Pakistan's western border area to prepare raids against NATO forces in Afghanistan.

"They've lost many, many citizens," Mullen said. "He recognizes there's a serious extremist, terrorist threat inside his country and, in fact, his forces have fought very hard this year up in Bajaur, and Mohman, up on the western border."

Mullen said that the Taliban and al-Qaida safe havens in Pakistan "must be eliminated."

"Ideally, that would come through the pressure that the Pakistanis bring to eliminate that threat," he added.

But if the extremists manage to launch an attack on the United States or its allies, it would change the equation, the admiral warned.

"What we're working hard on is trying to make sure that doesn't happen," the chairman said.

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THE STANS

Turkey bombs Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq: report

Ankara (AFP) March 13, 2009
Turkish warplanes have carried out new bombing raids against Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq, the Anatolia news agency reported Friday, quoting an army spokesman.

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