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The Island 5Saturday 4th December, 2010

CAIRO (AP) - The United Stateshas been pushing its powerhouseally Saudi Arabia to help stabilizePakistan and Afghanistan, but ithas struggled to overcome thekingdom’s deep mistrust ofPakistan’s president and doubtsover U.S. strategy for reining inmilitants, leaked U.S. diplomaticmemos show.

Saudi Arabia has long hadenormous influence in Pakistanand Afghanistan, using its petro-wealth and religious ties toIslamic hard-liners in both coun-tries. The kingdom was one ofonly two countries to recognizethe former Taliban government inAfghanistan and still has connec-tions to Taliban figures.

But Saudi Arabia has beencautious in mediating between theTaliban and the U.S.-backedAfghan government. A 2008 effortto get the two sides together in theSaudi holy city of Mecca col-lapsed, and earlier this monthSaudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said the kingdom would notmediate with the Taliban unlessthe movement broke its ties withal-Qaida and Osama bin Laden.

The memos released on theWikiLeaks website this week showdifferences in strategy between

Washington and Saudi Arabia.American diplomats have beenpressing the kingdom to throw itsweight behind President Asif AliZardari with financial aid andintelligence help against thePakistani Taliban and militantgroups who have been crossing theborder into Afghanistan to battleNATO and Afghan troops.

The pressure seems to havebrought some grudging progress.But Saudi officials appear wary of

aggressive action by the Pakistanimilitary against insurgents inPakistan, advising instead greateroutreach to unruly tribes to reinin militants. Above all, they seemconvinced Zardari is too corrupt tokeep the country together - andwould prefer a military strongmanor Saudi Arabia’s top ally inPakistan, former prime ministerand now opposition leader NawazSharif.

Saudi King Abdullah told

President Barack Obama’s then-national security adviser JamesJones in a January 2009 meetingthat Zardari is “an impediment todenying terrorist safe havens ... ‘arotten head’ that was infecting thewhole body,” according to a reportby the U.S. ambassador in Riyadh.

At the same time, ForeignMinister Saud told Jones that “wemust reach out to tribal leadersand separate those we could workwith from those we must fight,”and warned that the Pakistani mil-itary could lose its credibilityamong tribes if it is used to fightextremists.

A Pakistani presidentialspokesman in Islamabad dis-missed the reported comments,saying Zardari regards the Saudiking “as his elder brother.”

But since Zardari came tooffice in 2008, Pakistani diplomatshave felt the coldness.

The Pakistani ambassador toRiyadh, Umar Khan Alisherzai,complained to the Americans thatthe Saudis perceive Zardari as“pro-Iranian and pro-Shia, whichmade them apprehensive aboutworking with him.” Sunni-domi-nated Saudi Arabia is deeply wor-ried about mainly Shiite Iran’sgrowing influence in the MiddleEast and Afghanistan-Pakistanregion and fears Tehran is seekingto build a nuclear weapon, anaccusation Iran denies.

CARACAS, Venezuela(AP) - Confidential U.S.diplomatic cables releasedby WikiLeaks showAmerican diplomats havebeen worried about Iran’sgrowing influence in LatinAmerica but believe fears ofVenezuela sending uraniumto aid Tehran’s nuclear pro-gram are likely baseless.

The documents postedonline this week reveal thatas U.S. diplomats have inves-tigated President HugoChavez’s ties to nationsincluding Iran and Russia,they have sometimes foundmore bluster than substancein both Chavez’s ambitionsand his critics’ claims of alooming internationalthreat.

In one cable on June 11,2009, the U.S. Embassy saidVenezuela is “incapable ofsubstantive nuclear cooper-ation with Iran/Russia.”The document cited anunidentified nuclear sci-entist who saidVenezuela’s agree-

ment with Russia tostart a nuclear pro-gram “is pure politi-cal theater” and that“there is no explo-ration or exploita-tion of uranium,ongoing or planned,in Venezuela.”

“Althoughrumors thatVenezuela is provid-ing Iran ... uraniummay help burnishthe government’srevolutionary cre-dentials, there seemsto be little basis inreality to theclaims,” said thedocument releasedTuesday.

“It is highlyunlikely thatVenezuela is provid-ing Venezuelan ura-nium to third coun-tries,” said thereport, which addedthat American diplo-mats in Bolivia drewsimilar conclusions.

Chavez has builta close relationshipwith Iranian leadersbased on a sharedanti-U.S. stance, andIran has helped setup factories toassemble tractors,cars and bicycles inVenezuela.

Iran has alsobegun to build closerties with Venezuelanallies Bolivia andEcuador, but most oftheir pledges forboosting trade andjoint projects haveyet to be realized.

In his first visitto Bolivia in 2007,Iranian PresidentMahmoudAhmadinejadoffered the countryup to $1 billion incredit, none ofwhich has beendelivered. At thispoint, Iran’s assis-tance has amountedto the building of adairy and a hospital.

Ecuador hasbegun sendingbananas to Iran andexpressed an inter-est in buying farm-ing equipment.

BolivianPresident EvoMorales signed doc-uments pledging tobuy military planesand helicopters dur-ing an October visitto Tehran, and Iransaid it would helpBolivia manufacturelithium-ion batter-ies, among otherprojects.

The Bolivian govern-ment said Iran signaled itsreadiness to help it developnuclear energy for peacefuluses. But no action has beentaken, and Morales’spokesman Ivan Canelastold reporters Thursday thatno pact yet exists underwhich Iran would mine ura-nium in Bolivia.

Chavez vehementlydefends Iran’s nuclear pro-gram, saying the U.S. isfalsely accusing Tehran ofdeveloping atomic weapons.

Suspicions about Iran’sintentions have persistedamong Chavez critics, whilethe leftist leader has pur-sued plans to build a reactorwith help from Russia -under an agreement specify-ing that the plant will be forpeaceful energy uses only.

Chavez’s governmentsaid in October 2009 that

an aerial survey of itsmineral deposits - car-ried out with supportfrom Iran - detecteduranium deposits.

Fears, doubts over Iran’sties in South America

In this image taken on Jan 20,2009 U.S. Central CommandGen. David Petraeus, secondfrom left, meets Pakistan’sarmy chief Gen. AshfaqParvez Kayani, second fromright, while U. S. ambassadorto Pakistan Anne Pattersontalks to Pakistani Secretary ofForeign Affairs Salman Bashir,right, in Islamabad, Pakistan.According to Wikileaks Kayanitold the U.S. ambassador thathe “might, however reluctant-ly,” pressure Mr. Asif AliZardari to resign, but revealedhe had little time for the headof the opposition, NawazSharif.(AP

Memos: US pressing for Saudi

help in Pakistan

Hugo Chavez andBolivian PresidentEvo Morales(R)

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