02/08/2013 10:17
Kerry hopes Pakistan drone strikes to end 'very soon'
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told Pakistanis on Thursday he hoped U.S. drone strikes in their nation would end "very, very soon," a message meant to ease anti-American resentment in the strategic country, Reuters reported.
After meeting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Kerry said they had agreed to re-establish a "full partnership", hoping to end years of acrimony over the drone strikes and other grievances including the May 2011 U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
In a television interview later, Kerry said of the drone strikes, "I think the program will end as we have eliminated most of the threat and continue to eliminate it."
“I think the president has a very real timeline and we hope it's going to be very, very soon," he told Pakistan Television, when asked whether the U.S. had a timetable for ending drone strikes aimed at militants in Pakistan.
Kerry's comments went further than those of President Barack Obama, who said in a May 23 speech that the need for drone strikes would decrease in "the Afghan war theater" as U.S. troops withdraw by the end of 2014.
But Obama did not speak of ending drone strikes entirely and his speech offered a detailed justification for the tactic "against terrorists who pose a continuing and imminent threat to the American people, and when there are no other governments capable of effectively addressing the threat."
U.S. drone missiles have targeted areas near the Afghan border, including North Waziristan, the main stronghold for various militant groups aligned with al Qaeda and the Taliban, since 2004. Pakistanis have been angered by reports of civilian casualties and what they see as an abuse of their sovereignty.
U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan have fallen significantly over the past 2 1/2 years, totaling 17 so far this year, versus 48 in all of 2012 and 73 in 2011, according to a tally kept by the New America Foundation.