US urged Pak against accepting Iran's concessional oil offer, providing it with foothold
Karachi, May 24ANI: The United States tried to influence Pakistan's policy with regard to Iran, US diplomatic cables unveiled by the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks have revealed. A US State Department official urged Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari against accepting Iran's offer of concessional oil and providing Iran with a foothold in Pakistan, according to an October 2008 cable published by the Dawn. The meeting between the then US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Richard Boucher, and Zardari took place on October 18, 2008 at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, during which Zardari apprised the visiting official of the Iranian offer that the President "did not believe he could refuse." "How could he Zardari go to the National Assembly and tell them Iran had offered the assistance and Pakistan had turned it down, he asked rhetorically," the then US Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne W. Patterson, wrote in the cable dated October 22, 2008. "Boucher reminded him of Ambassador Husain Haqqani's recent conversation with Deputy Secretary Negroponte, in which the Deputy cautioned against providing Iran with a toehold in Pakistan," she added. The cable not only illustrates how US officials tried influencing Pakistan's policy with regard to Iran, but also indicates how and with whom Pakistan had been dealing with at that time in order to meet its energy requirements. The American caution about Iranian oil is consistent with the US government's efforts to isolate Iran both militarily and economically, the paper said. Months after the talks with Boucher, Zardari again referred to Iran's offer to provide "oil, gas and electricity to Pakistan" in a discussion with a Congressional delegation headed by US Senator Patrick Leahy, according to a May 2009 cable. Zardari told the delegation during the May 25, 2009 meeting that "Pakistan desperately needed energy resources" and that "no on else - especially the Saudis" was ready to help. However, in a possible attempt to please the delegation, he went on to say: "I need you more than anyone else, so I will take my cue from you. Perhaps now it will be possible to work with Iran on energy issues." Interestingly, however, Patterson noted in the cable that Zardari had asked for the "cue" a day after he and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had signed an inter-governmental framework declaration to support the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline agreement between the oil ministries of Pakistan and Iran. On the other hand, the US government was almost simultaneously in touch with Saudi officials regarding Saudi-Pak negotiations, to assist Pakistan "by deferring crude oil payments", a previously published cable dated July 30, 2008 states. It further states that if the US government assessed that a "rapid implementation" of the Saudi offer was "critically important to the Pakistan government's stability, it will likely take USG intervention at the highest levels with senior Saudi officials...to secure its rapid implementation." ANI
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