WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama called President Asif Ali Zardari and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai on Thursday to tell them Washington had completed a review of its new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, officials said.

(According to TV reports, President Zardari expressed concern over US drone attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areas and told President Obama that the attacks must be stopped.)

Mr Obama also briefed key Republican and Democratic senators on the new policy. “The president gave information on the key points of the strategy,” a US official told reporters in Washington when asked for information on Mr Obama’s calls to Afghan and Pakistani presidents.

The Obama administration had planned to unveil the new strategy at an international meeting on Afghanistan next Tuesday but later changed the plan and is now expected to make it public on Friday.

Mr Karzai is due to attend the meeting in the Netherlands while Pakistan is sending Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who also will attend the meeting along with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, has invited Iran as well.

The emphasis on Pakistan is even greater. The main focus is on fighting the militants hiding in Fata. But there is also a realisation that “the military alone cannot win” this war, as Senator John Kerry, chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Thursday.

President Obama’s next ambassador to Afghanistan, Lt-Gen Karl Eikenberry, told his confirmation hearing on Thursday: “Al Qaeda and their allies… seek to create fear and chaos inside of Afghanistan and Pakistan in order to regain the territorial control that allowed them to so horrifically overturn the peace and tranquility of our homeland seven years ago,” he said.

The general told the Foreign Relations Committee that it’s very important to develop a coordinated regional approach with Pakistan.

Senator Russ Feingold, a Democrat, said that the much-needed review of the US policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan would help develop a comprehensive and regional approach towards the region.

The senator hoped that the new policy would “recognise the critical role that Pakistan plays when it comes to our nation’s security and, of course, to Afghanistan’s stability.”

Syed Irfan Raza adds from Islamabad: “President Obama and President Zardari discussed the ‘Friends of Democratic Pakistan’ forum initiative aimed at promoting and strengthening democracy in Pakistan,” president Zardari’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar said.

“The two leaders also discussed matters relating to the fight against militancy, with particular reference to peace in the region,” he said.

President Zardari will preside over the Friends of Democratic Pakistan’s ministerial meeting to be held in Tokyo on April 17.
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