LAHORE, Sept 16: The setback the US suffered in Kabul and Baghdad invasions, the European challenge to its authority and the emerging nuclear powers in Asia have forced Washington to change its strategy for achieving its motives, says former chief of the army staff Gen Mirza Aslam Beg, cautioning that Pakistan will be more vulnerable in the new scenario.

The armed resistance in Afghanistan and Iraq had literally clipped the wings of the “sole superpower” of the modern world, which was not able to invade any other state for achieving its motives anymore, the president of Awami Qiadat Party (AQP) told a group of reporters here on Tuesday.

AQP information-secretary Mohammad Mahdi was also present on the occasion.

“The Mujahideen in Afghanistan and Iraq have pre-empted the pre-emptive strike policy of the Bush administration,” Mr Mirza said.

Washington has been forced to change its strategy from army attack to diplomatic coercion and arm-twisting through financial institutions in the form of sanctions and embargoes, he said.

The fact that armed resistance in Afghanistan and Iraq had hurt the US beyond imagination was evident from Washington’s seeking help from other countries to bail itself out of the quagmire it was in the two countries, he added. “It is an almost direct confession of defeat by the US administration.”

He, however, cautioned that in the new world scenario, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan would be prime targets of the United States. This was visible in the emerging US-India-Israel nexus, in “reports” that Saudi Arabia was sheltering terrorists, in the deadline given to Iran to open its nuclear installations to world inspection and accusations that Pakistan had been providing nuclear technology to North Korea and Iran, infiltrating into Kashmir and harbouring Al Qaeda and Taliban activists in the past, he argued.

He claimed that sooner or later Iran would declare its nuclear capability to discharge the pressure and establish a deterrence against Israel.

The former army chief said neo-nuclear powers Pakistan, Iran and North Korea would have a prominent role to play in regional politics. He urged the local political and military leadership to re-align their policies in the new world perspective to counter the coercive measures that the US may adopt for pressing Islamabad to fulfil its demands in the region.

Answering a question about foreign minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri’s proposal to India on establishing a Saarc force for maintaining peace in the occupied Kashmir, Gen Beg termed it an ill-timed harping.

“How can India accept a regional force in the held Kashmir when it has never allowed UN observers’ presence in the disputed area,” he questioned.

He wondered why Islamabad was in such a haste to solve the Kashmir problem while it was New Delhi that was being hurt the most due to the ongoing freedom movement in the Valley.

Opposing any hasty deal on Kashmir, he said the step might damage Pakistan’s interests.

Talking about local politics, he said he believed that the government and the MMA would be able to ink an agreement to steer the country out of the constitutional crisis it was in, leaving only the PPP and the PML-N on the opposition benches.

He argued that in case the LFO talks failed, the incumbent assemblies should be wrapped up and fresh elections held within 90 days under an interim set-up.

Replying to a question as to which set-up, civil or military, was needed to come up to the challenges in the new scenario, he said he favoured a mix of the two like that in Turkey