Скачать или смотреть Pakistan PM meets Rumsfeld at Pentagon

(24 Jan 2006)

1. Wide shot convoy of Pakistani prime minister Shaukat Aziz arriving at the Pentagon
2. Mid shot Aziz's car pulls up, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld waiting
3. Door is opened, Aziz gets out, shakes hands with Rumsfeld and they enter building, pull out to wide

STORYLINE:

Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was in Washington on Monday to meet with US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Aziz's visit comes at a time of strained bilateral ties after a US missile strike on January 13 hit the Pashtun tribal hamlet of Damadola, killing 13 civilians, and possibly several senior al-Qaida figures.

Pakistan has made a diplomatic protest to the US, but its officials are still taking care to affirm their loyalty to the United States in the war on terror.

Meanwhile in Pakistan, a huge protest was mounted by opposition leaders to protest the air strike, but Pakistani security forces stopped protesters from reaching Damadola, their intended destination.

The protest was mounted by the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) or United Action Front, a bloc of six opposition parties.

Also on Monday, lawmakers at a provincial assembly in northwestern Pakistan - which is controlled by the MMA - demanded the government expel US Ambassador Ryan Crocker in response to the airstrike, but the government rejected the demand.

Pakistani president General Pervez Musharraf has been a close ally in the war on terror, and in the past four years Pakistan has captured more than 700 al-Qaida suspects, including top figures such as the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

But the missile strike has intensified opposition among Pakistanis to that alliance and appears to have stoked support for al-Qaida along the lawless border with Afghanistan, where Taliban and al-Qaida militants seek refuge.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said the United States had yet to respond to Pakistan's diplomatic protest over the missile strike, other than to say that "the US would be investigating."

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