THE TELEGRAPH: Pakistan's intelligence agency has cancelled planned talks with security experts in Britain following David Cameron's claim that elements within the country are promoting the export of terror, it is reported.
Mr Cameron's comments sparked outrage in Islamabad during this week's trip to India.
The decision precedes a three-day visit to the UK by Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani President, during which he is expected to stay with the Prime Minister at his country home, Chequers.
The Times reported that senior officers from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had been due to come to London for talks on counter-terrorism co-operation with British security services.
An ISI spokesman sadi: ''The visit has been cancelled in reaction to the comments made by the British Prime Minister against Pakistan.'' >>> | Saturday, July 31, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: David Cameron's outspoken comments about Pakistan smack of hypocrisy and grandstanding, says Charles Moore.
Since David Cameron is setting a fashion for being blunt, let's join in. He got his tour this week to Turkey and India wrong.
In advance, everyone was promised that British foreign policy would now be politically and financially realistic. It would eschew Blairite ambitions to put the world to rights. It would strengthen bilateral relations and boost trade. Diplomats would no longer be valued for their thoughtful telegrams about the situation in Ruritania, but by their ability to get out and sell British goods and services. We must cut our coat according to our cloth, was the message – and then flog the coat abroad.
And so it was that a huge party of ministers and businessmen accompanied the Prime Minister to the sub-continent, talking about contracts, green initiatives and universities.
But, by Wednesday, things were not going quite right. I was struck by a juxtaposition of stories in this newspaper. One carried the headline: "Gaza is like a prison camp, says PM." Next door, was a report in which Mr Cameron proclaimed that he was approaching India with "humility". Although the Gaza remarks were made in Turkey, not India, the stories did not sit happily together. Was Mr Cameron being blunt or humble? It's hard to be both at once.
When he actually reached India, he did not lower the temperature. Speaking in Bangalore, he said that "we cannot tolerate the idea that this country [Pakistan] is allowed to look both ways and is able… to promote the export of terror". The new Foreign Secretary, William Hague, tactfully explained that the Prime Minister "wasn't accusing anyone of double-dealing". But anyone not trained as a politician or diplomat could see that he was.
Faced with protests, Mr Cameron decided to defend himself. He was simply an honest man abroad, was the line. The British people, he said, did not expect him "to go around the world telling people what they wanted to hear".
Yet the fault in his "gaffes" had something to do with the fact that he was telling his immediate audience what it wanted to hear. In saying that Gaza was a "prison camp", without even mentioning Hamas, he was repeating the line of his host, the Turkish prime minister, Recep Erdogan. Mr Erdogan recently said: "I do not accept Hamas as a terrorist organisation", and one Hamas leader declared: "Mr Erdogan has become our voice." Everything, for Mr Erdogan and for Hamas, is the fault of Israel. Mr Cameron seemed to endorse this. Continue reading and comment >>> Charles Moore | Saturday, July 31, 2010
