Outgoing US President George W. Bush directly warned Prime Minister Gilani during his first official visit to US that Pakistan would be attacked in the event of another 9/11 on the American soil, a UK based scholar claimed on Saturday. Professor Anatol Liven made this disclosure during a public talk on ‘Obama’s Administration and the War on Terror’, organised by the Institute of Strategic Studies (ISS) here. A large number of ambassadors, diplomats, intellectuals and students attended the talk and also raised their questions.
While further elaborating his point he said the US suffered deep wounds due to 9/11 attacks and it responded immediately out of the rising feelings of nationalism among the American people.
“I don’t know but can say if there is any other 9/11 in US, Pakistan may face limited American attack in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA),” he said.
Professor Anatol said upcoming Obama administration is likely to deploy more troops in Afghanistan, but it is expected that it would have to pull out finally because the coalition troops are now becoming ‘hostages’ in the war-torn country.
He said Pakistan cannot be bracketed with countries like Iraq and those who think this way are totally wrong, because there is a democratically elected government that has the ability to cope with the emerging challenges.
Showing a little bit pessimism about the appointment of Hillary Clinton as the US Secretary of State, he said she would follow those foreign policies introduced and promoted by the Clinton administration.
He said: “It will be a wishful thinking if any hopes that there would be any drastic change in the US foreign policy, but the Obama administration will keep in mind the economic recession that is generally dubbed as a direct result of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“Most American want to see America as the most influential country in the world despite the fact that they are generally not concerned about their foreign policies,” he said.
He underlined some facts that according to him would have a key role in the upcoming US foreign policy that include personal vision of Barrack Obama, capability of political system to introduce radical changes and understanding of the long-standing international issues.
To a question about the US-Iran relations, he opined the Obama administration would go for talks with Iran, adding it can also show some diplomatic concessions to Syria.
Replying to a question about prospects of US-China mutual relations, he said the Bush administration has been pursuing a very pragmatic approach and if the next administration continues to follow it, the US would certainly benefit from it.
ISS DG Tanvir Ahmad Khan while speaking on the occasion said Barrack Obama has been selling the idea of change and now the Gaza situation would be his first highly important diplomatic challenge soon after his oath-taking for the office of the president.
He said George W. Bush emerged as a warrior president and he never looked back on his policies after the 9/11 incidents that brought high level of aggression in the US foreign policies.
“US president George W. Bush declared a war on terror but it only encouraged the terrorist outfits to further expand their network in the world,” he said.
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