WH eager to improve relations, but mum on drones

The White House press secretary, Jay Carney has said that it is a complicated relationship (with Pakistan) that requires a lot of attention, and we give it that attention.Well continue to work with Pakistan to pursue that agenda, he stressed.When asked about the message from US to Pakistan as the latters parliament starts debating on the recommendations following a strategic review of relations with US, Jay Carney said during a briefing Monday that American administrations commitment to the bilateral ties was unwavering.Our message hasnt changed, which is that we consider that relationship very important, not least because of its importance to our national security interests. And we will continue to work with Pakistan on our shared goals of eradicating the threat of terrorism in the region, he observed.He also took the opportunity to highlight the significance of Pakistans contributions in the war against terror. There is no question that the cooperation that we have had from Pakistan has contributed to some of the successes that we have had in taking the fight to al-Qaeda, in eliminating senior al-Qaeda leadership from -- removing senior al-Qaeda leadership from the battlefield, he recalled.Jay Carney, though, declined to comment on a question regarding the anger in Pakistan over drone strikes that continued unabated despite stiff opposition from the Pakistani civil and military leadership, and where the US was thinking about doing something to address it.On Pakistan, again, without addressing the specifics of your question, we understand that there are challenges in the relationship. We work very closely with our Pakistani counterparts and we are very clear about what our objectives are in terms of American national security interests, he contended.On a separate question regarding negotiations with the Afghan government on night raids, he said consultations were ongoing. We continue to have conversations with the Afghan government about that issue and are focused very much on implementing a strategy that includes transferring combat lead to Afghan security forces in 2013 with the aim of ultimately transferring all lead authority to Afghan security forces by 2014, in accordance with NATOs agreement in Lisbon.- Contributed by Awais Saleem, Dunya News correspondent in Washington, DC