US does not want peace in Pakistan: Nisar

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Friday that assurances given by the United States could not be trusted.

Speaking to media, Nisar said he was dumbfounded on how Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz believed the US assurance over drone strikes.

The interior minister asked how anyone could call the US a friend of Pakistan after the recent drone strikes. “Actions have made it clear that the US neither wants peace in Pakistan nor talks with the Taliban.”

During a briefing to the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Aziz said that the United States had assured Pakistan that no drone strikes would be conducted during the peace talks with the Taliban. A day after the briefing, the US conducted a drone strike targeting a seminary in Hangu, the first in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Six people including three militants of the Haqqani network were killed in the strike.

A US drone strike on November 01 in which former Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud was killed led to the government’s efforts to initiate dialogue with the militant group being stalled.