Next US Prez must stop attacks in Pak: Gilani

Gilani’s remarks in an interview with The Associated Press underscore how shaping a policy to deal with the militant threat in nuclear-armed Pakistan and its new civilian leaders will be a key task for the next US president.

They also revealed the rising strain the strikes have placed on relations between the two nations seven years after the September 11 attacks forced them into an uneasy alliance.

“No matter who the president of America will be, if he doesn’t respect the sovereignty and integrity of Pakistan …

anti-America sentiments and anti-West sentiment will be there,” said Gilani in his heavily guarded residence atop a hill in the capital, Islamabad.

Over the last two months, the US has launched at least 17 strikes on militant targets on Pakistan’s lawless side of the Afghan border.

The region is home to scores of al-Qaida and Taliban fighters believed involved in attacks on American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, where violence is at its highest levels since the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001.

The missile strikes are widely seen as sign of increasing frustration in the US at Pakistan’s unwillingness or inability to tackle the threat emanating from the region, believed to be a possible hiding place for Osama bin Laden.