Monday, May 30, 2011

Saudi Arabia thinks Pakistan controls Taliban: WikiLeaks


A cable sent by the American ambassador in Riyadh said that the Saudi officials made it clear to the United States that Pakistan would only accept the Afghan leadership which would accept Durand Line as an international border.

In January 2010, Saudi Interior Minister General Masoodi and special US envoy Barnett R Rubin met in Riyadh. Saudi officials were of the view that most of the warriors were grown up in Pakistan due to which Pakistan had control over them. However, most of Afghan Taliban want to end this control. Masoodi said that the Afghan Taliban group was weak at the moment and America should help it to make it strong because Pakistan and Iran were using most of the Taliban for their own benefit.

The Saudi general also told the US representative that there was a need to remove Pakistan’s reservations on Afghanistan, otherwise there would be grave consequences. He said that the presence of India in Afghanistan extremely displeased Pakistan. The Saudi general also said that there was no benefit of talks with Pakistani Taliban because they were dominated by Al Qaeda.

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