WASHINGTON: The army chief, Gen Raheel Sharif, will meet US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday before flying back to Pakistan after a two-week stay in the United States.

“Yes, I can confirm that Secretary Kerry will meet the COAS tomorrow,” a senior US official told Dawn on Saturday.

The US-Pakistan Defence Consultative Group also meets in Washington in two weeks, diplomatic sources said.

They said that the United States also planned to continue economic and military assistance to Pakistan after the current arrangement ends.

Gen Sharif came to the United States earlier this month for talks on strategic issues and on Operation Zarb-i-Azb.

He has already met senior officials at the White House, the State Department and the US Department of Defence.

He also met US services chiefs and visited headquarters of the US Central Command for talks on issues related to US strategies in the Pak-Afghan region. The Central Command oversees US military efforts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

During his presentations in Washington, Gen Sharif assured the US administration that the operation in North Waziristan was directed against all terrorist groups. He told US officials, who were particularly concerned about the activities of the Haqqani network that the Haqqanis were among the groups Pakistan was targeting and there were no exceptions in this operation.

Senior US officials told Dawn that they found Gen Sharif “honest and straightforward” and had reasons to believe his assurance that Pakistan was now targeting the Haqqani network.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2014