World Tribune.com

Clinton ties Pakistan visit to cooperation on Bin Laden

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, February 18, 2000

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Bill Clinton plans to snub Pakistan during a trip to south Asia next month in what officials said is meant to protest Islamabad's refusal to cooperate in efforts to capture Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden.

Officials said Clinton's visit is linked to Pakistan's willingness to capture Bin Laden, located in neighboring Afghanistan. So far, the officials said, Islamabad has rejected numerous appeals to press the ruling Afghan Taliban militia to surrender Bin Laden, accused of masterminding the bombings of two U.S. embassies in east Africa in 1998.

Diplomatic sources said a U.S. commando force arrived in Pakistan last year in an attempt to launch a raid of Bin Laden's hideout. But they said the effort was apparently stymied by the refusal of Pakistan to cooperate.

On Wednesday, Clinton said he could visit Pakistan in a trip to south Asia scheduled for the week of March 20. The trip will include visits to Bangladesh and India.

"I have decided that I am going to India and Bangladesh," he said. "And I will make a decision about whether to go [to Pakistan] based on what I think will best serve our long-term interest in non-proliferation, in trying to stop particularly, the arms race, and trying to help promote stability, democracy and a resolution of the conflict between India and Pakistan."

Clinton did not cite the Bin Laden issue. He said he hoped his visit to south Asia will help ease tensions between India and Pakistan.

A senior U.S. official said Clinton will urge India to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. "And as long as India persists in being a self-declared nuclear weapons state outside the NPT," the official said, "there are going to be certain limitations on the relationships that a number of countries including the United States and Japan are going to be able to have with India."

Friday, February 18, 2000


Contact World Tribune.com at world@worldtribune.com

Return toWorld Tribune.com front page
Your window on the world