United States Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke has long been sidelined by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and now it appears the Pakistanis no longer wish to deal with him as well. A June 9 visit to Islamabad by Holbrooke has been canceled “after he was informed that no important officials would be in Islamabad on the day because of prior commitments,” according to a report in Dawn. Take a look at the events that President Asif Zardari and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had to attend rather than meeting the US’ special envoy:
Mr Holbrooke planned to visit Islamabad for discussions on the recently concluded India-US strategic dialogue, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to China, the Afghan peace jirga and, more importantly, the Pak-US official-level talks beginning on Friday.
But, he was informed that neither President Asif Zardari nor Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi would be in Islamabad – the president would be in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) for the SCO summit and Mr Qureshi in Istanbul for the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) summit.
And it seems India and central Asian countries want nothing to do with Holbrooke either:
Earlier Mr Holbrooke had to cancel visit to India and Turkmenistan because of similar problems.
