NEW YORK: US President George W. Bush was set to hold his first face-to-face talks with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari yesterday amid strained ties between the key allies in the “war on terror.”
The meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly will take place against the bloody backdrop of a weekend suicide bomb blast at the Marriott Hotel in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad which left at least 60 people dead and more than 260 wounded.
Zardari “will apprise him of the blast as part of the discussions on joint efforts to wage the war on terror,” Pakistani spokesman Nadeem Kiani told AFP.
Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani as well as their country’s military top brass, according to a Pakistani official, also narrowly escaped the blast as they were due to have dinner at the hotel on the night it was bombed but switched venue at the last minute.
As the Pakistani president arrived in New York on Monday, the UN Security Council condemned the deadly truck bombing and stressed that those responsible must be brought to justice.
Bush had also condemned the blast, blamed on Al-Qaeda, which masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and the Taleban. Both the groups have reportedly sought sanctuary in tribal areas in Pakistan along the border with Afghanistan, using it as a staging ground for attacks on international troops helping Kabul contain the insurgency.
Bush reiterated Washington’s support in the fight against terrorism in tribal areas in a telephone call to Zardari after he was sworn into office on Sept. 9 to take over from Pervez Musharraf.
But The New York Times reported recently that Bush secretly approved orders in June allowing US forces in Afghanistan to conduct ground operations in Pakistan without Islamabad’s prior approval.
