US no more pressing for N. Waziristan operation

WASHINGTON: The US military has stopped urging Pakistan to launch an operation in North Waziristan to root out the Haqqani network, officials said.

Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Robert Gates told journalists that the US was not expecting Pakistan to undertake new offensives for some time because it was busy consolidating the gains it had already made.
On Friday, an influential American newspaper – Wall Street Journal – reported that the US had stopped lobbying Pakistan to root out militants in North Waziristan.
US military officials told the Journal they believed pressing Pakistan for help against the group was counter-productive.
The newspaper reported that during a trip to Pakistan last month, Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, chose not to raise the issue of an offensive against the Haqqani network — a departure from the message US defence officials delivered earlier this year.
The Journal quoted US officials as saying that they believed making more demands, public or private, on Islamabad to start a military offensive against the Haqqani network would only strain US-Pakistani relations.

Source: DAWN