Zardari, top US commander meet
By IANSSaturday, June 26, 2010
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari met US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen Saturday and discussed the fight against militancy and the regional security situation.
Pakistani Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and US Ambassador Anne W. Patterson were also present during the meeting, Xinhua quoted a brief statement from the president’s office as saying.
Mullen arrived in Pakistan to meet with Pakistani leaders and US embassy officials here, the embassy said.
He will also meet Kayani and the air force chief, Air Chief Marshal Qamar Suleman, separately, a US embassy statement said.
Sources said that Mullen’s visit is aimed at taking into confidence the Pakistani political and military leadership about the sacking of the top US commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
McChrystal was sacked by President Barack Obama for making derogatory remarks about the president and his team in a magazine interview.
The US admiral arrived in Islamabad after travelling to Kabul to assure Afghan leaders that there will be no change in the US policy after the removal of McChrystal.
US Vice President Joe Biden had called up President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to take them into confidence about the change of command in Afghanistan.
