USA may lose all allies in Middle East

The USA may lose the support of Pakistan after a number of notorious incidents with the participation of US servicemen, which took place in the country in 2011.

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Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has recently announced his support of Iran. The relations between the United States and Pakistan have been growing intense recently indeed. The trilateral summit with the participation of the leaders of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan caused a serious blow on the USA's image in the region. The Obama administration strives for the economic and diplomatic isolation of Teheran at the time when Iranian President Ahmadinejad discusses a new project in the field of gas industry with his Pakistani counterpart.

Decades ago, during the time of the 1980s and 1990s, the USA considered Pakistan one of its key allies in the Middle East. Iran was America's enemy, whereas India was attracted to the USSR. Pakistan is an important player in the region: the country became a nuclear power at the end of the 1990s.

The relations between the two countries began to aggravate presumably because of the clash of interests in Afghanistan. Many Pakistani military men were exposed of their support of the Talibs. The US army began to conduct punitive operations inside Pakistan. The operations very often resulted in losses among Pakistani military men.

"America's relationship with Pakistan is crashing. Decades of mistrust and duplicity on both sides are coming to the surface. The Pakistani Army has an agenda that is at odds with ours. At bottom, we are on opposite sides of the war in Afghanistan, and that poisons everything. [...]This trust gap is the result of decades of mutual deceit and lying. Pakistan proclaimed it was our ally against communism or Al Qaeda or whatever when what it really just wanted was arms and help to fight India. America promised to help democracy in Pakistan and instead backed four brutal military dictators." Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer write once, describing the point of mutual mistrust.

A serious diplomatic scandal erupted in the spring of 2011 against the background of the US-led anti-terrorist operation to destroy Al-Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. The Americans did not coordinate their actions with the Pakistani government, which raised eyebrows in Islamabad. The Pakistani administration concluded that the Americans violated the sovereignty of the country. The States, however, accused Pakistan of giving shelter to terrorist No.1 and his associates.

Another anti-terrorist operation, which the Americans conducted in November 2011, led to catastrophic consequences. A Pakistani frontier outpost found itself in the line of fire. Twenty-four military men were killed in the raid. Afterwards, the Pakistani government demanded the US should withdraw its Shamsi airbase from the territory of Pakistan. The evacuation of the base had been completed by December 11.

A recent statement from the Pakistan President regarding a possible attack against Iran became another unpleasant surprise for the United States. Washington may not count on Islamabad's support in case of a military conflict with Iran. Furthermore, Pakistan will show a tough response to possible aggression. Pakistan and Iran need each other, and they will not tolerate any foreign interference, the Pakistani leader claimed.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar stated that she would like to have a meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss opportunities for resuming allied relations between Islamabad and Washington.

The geopolitical satiation in the Middle East continues to get worse. However, the US government takes no measures to improve its ties with Pakistan. As a result, the United States may finally lose the ally which received considerable military assistance from the Pentagon in the past. Nowadays, the US Army leaves its bases in the country because anti-American sentiments in the multi-million-strong country have reached their peak.

The USA loses one ally after another. The country may eventually face the powerful coalition of Mideastern states that will be ousting NATO servicemen from their region.

Yury Sosinsky Semikhat

Pravda.Ru

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