‘US support on India’s UNSC seat aimed against Pakistan’

ISLAMABAD - US President Barack Obama’s support to India’s bid for a permanent seat in an expanded UN Security Council is “a diplomatic offensive against Pakistan”, an opposition leader said in the National Assembly Wednesday.

“The speech of US President Barack Obama in the Indian parliament backing their bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council is a diplomatic offensive against Pakistan,” Nisar Ali Khan of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said.

“The decision taken by the US president to please his hosts like this had been viewed with extreme displeasure across the border in Pakistan,” Nisar added.

Obama, addressing Indian parliamentarians Monday during his four-day visit to India, said the US would back Indian efforts to secure a permanent UNSC seat.

The Pakistani government and the intelligentsia have criticised Obama’s statement, saying it would disturb the power balance in the region.

The opposition leader said: “America is bluffing Pakistan that it is a frontline ally in the war on terror but the real fruits are being diverted to India.”

“Does (US Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton really mean it when she says that war against militants can’t be won without Pakistan,” he wondered.

“The government had not taken PML-N on board before the strategic dialogue with United States in Washington last month,” Nisar said, adding: “The current regime’s foreign policy makers need to set their priorities right.”

(Awais Saleem can be contacted at ians.pakistan@gmail.com)