Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had what appears to have been a cordial meeting in Islamabad and agreed to tighten border controls and direct their intelligence agencies to share information on Jihadis according to a report by the Voice of America.
If this works out in practice, it's major - so of course it's pretty much below the fold with much of the dinosaur media.
"People of both the countries are suffering at the hands of these extremists terrorists," Musharraf said. "To meet this challenge and threat we discussed how we could cooperate on the intelligence side. The two intelligence agencies on both sides must cooperate more strongly if we are to deal with terrorists and extremists more effectively. That is the key."
Karzai said that the two countries would focus on the roots of the Islamic extremist organizations and the sources used by Islamist groups in the area - which, in practice, means the mosques and madrassahs, a number of which are Saudi funded. And it means that Musharraf will have to go after the al-Qaeda and Taliban sanctuaries in Waziristan...which might just mean that NATO and the US were privy to this new agreement, and we could see joint efforts to hunt these rats down and exterminate them where they live.
"We have recognized that there is a problem that we are both facing -- what are the roots of these problems what are the sources and backups of these militant groups in both the countries," Musharraf said.
This is especially significant because of the past friction between Karzai and Musharraf, another thing that makes it appear to me that the US may have been involved.
In any event, it's an optimistic sign that hopefully bodes well.
This agreement is a start. Of course, the proof will be the implementation of such a policy to rout out Al Qaeda from its hidey-hole.
ReplyDeleteIf this works out it would be great news, however, I have heard many stories about "meetings" and "agreements" over the last several years. So far, not much seems to have been accomplished. I pray this time is different.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the Americans were involved in some way but I doubt it. I think the real reason they gpt together is because Islamic terrorists are a major threat to both the Afghan and Pakastani governments.