ICC Note:
The issue of religious intolerance and Christians persecution was publicly ignored in the highly anticipated meeting between U.S. President Obama and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Issues relating to the future relationship of the two nations, including drones and the future of Pakistan’s neighbor Afghanistan, were discussed by the world leaders. Just one month before the meeting, over 130 Christians were killed in a suicide bomb attack on a church in Peshawar, Pakistan. This event only highlights the horrific conditions Christians and other religious minorities are exposed to in an increasingly intolerant Pakistan. Will the U.S. ever bring up the issue of religious intolerance in Pakistan or is the right to the freedom of religion limited to the U.S.’s borders?
10/24/2013 Washington, D.C. (Fox News) – Seeking to improve a rocky relationship, President Obama and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday pledged cooperation on the security issues that have strained ties between their nations. But the sources of the long-standing tensions did briefly bubble to the surface.
Speaking alongside Obama in the Oval Office, Sharif said he brought up the issue of American drone strikes during their two-hour meeting, “emphasizing the need for an end to such strikes.” For his part, Obama made no mention of drones, which have stoked widespread resentment in Pakistan where many believe targeted strikes by the armed unmanned aircraft kill large numbers of civilians.
The mere fact that Obama and Sharif met was seen as a sign of progress. Tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan peaked in 2011 following the U.S. raid inside Pakistan that killed Usama bin Laden and the accidental killing of two dozen Pakistani troops in an American airstrike along the Afghan border that same year.
Since then, there have been signs of progress. Pakistan, which closed off some U.S. supply lines out of Afghanistan in retaliation for the deaths of its troops, reopened the routes last year. And ahead of Sharif’s visit, the U.S. quietly decided to release more than $1.6 billion in military and economic aid to Pakistan that was suspended in 2011.
Obama acknowledged that there will always be some tension between the U.S. and Pakistan.
“It’s a challenge. It’s not easy,” he said. “We committed to working together and making sure that rather than this being a source of tension between our two countries, it can be a source of strength.”
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