Voice of America quotes South Asia Center Director Shuja Nawaz on the Pakistani offensive against militant bases in North Waziristan:

The director of the Washington-based Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center, Shuja Nawaz, said it is too early to comment on how the Obama administration views the Pakistani counter-terrorism offensive because Washington is heavily distracted by a number of crises in other parts of the world. 
 
“North Waziristan was seen as the point of contention with Pakistan largely because of the Haqqani group, but I do not see any mention of the Haqqani group in any of the official statements coming out of Rawalpindi or Islamabad.  So, if there has been some kind of arrangement made with the Haqqani group to allow them to exit the territory before the cordon and search operations began then that is something that has yet to be shared with the public,” said Nawaz.

[…]

“This is a war that Pakistan is involved in and North Waziristan is probably only the first battle, and we have to wait to see how that goes and whether there will be a will to fight the militancy and terrorism through the country as a whole,” said Nawaz.

Read the full article here.

Related Experts: Shuja Nawaz