ISLAMABAD: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday plunges into new talks to press US demands for Islamabad to dismantle Taliban safe havens, while appealing to Pakistan's deeply mistrustful public at large.
The visiting top US diplomat will meet separately with President Asif Ali Zardari and Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, after four hours of talks Thursday involving military, intelligence and civilian leaders from both sides.
In a town-hall style forum to be broadcast live on television, Clinton will also engage Friday in a give-and-take with the Pakistani public, which should involve scores of civil society leaders, women and business leaders.
US officials said Clinton would reiterate her strongly worded arguments about the need for Pakistan to dismantle safe havens on its soil, which are used by militants fighting US-led troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.
“She'll make essentially the same types of points but she'll make it in a more conversational, populist style and then she'll take questions, because we really do want to engage with the Pakistani public,” one senior official said.
“And we want to ensure that we are really having a dialogue about our relationship going forward because we both have a lot at stake here,” the State Department official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
A Pew Research Center survey in June said just eight per cent of Pakistanis had confidence in US President Barack Obama “to do the right thing in world affairs” —as low as George W. Bush's rating at the end of his presidency.
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