Pakistan concerned over US air raids

US air strikes in Pakistan's troubled tribal belt are "seriously undermining" public support for the government, a senior official says. North West Frontier Province governor Owais Ghani said such actions could make it impossible for the government to keep struggling against militancy. Ghani said that he would be "deeply concerned" about any increase in unilateral US airstrikes in tribal areas. "This has a great backlash in the public sentiment, public opinion," he said. "It seriously undermines the much needed backing of the population. "Therefore it is very, very undesirable, and if it continues I think the pressure is already building up. If that goes beyond a certain point and people react, no government, political or military, will be able to continue. So I think that it's very important they understand the implications." Previously, the US did have permission from Pakistan for limited air strikes against militant targets. But the new government elected in February asked them to stop, because these hits roused anger and led to revenge attacks. The Pakistani authorities say that seven years of military action has only radicalized the tribes along the Afghan border, strengthened the Taliban and weakened state institutions. So they have turned to political negotiations and economic development to try to wrest back their authority, along with the selective use of force. Ghani countered US and Afghan assertions that Taliban sanctuaries in the tribal areas were the main factor fueling the Afghan insurgency. He pointed to the thriving opium trade and the weakness of social and political structures inside Afghanistan. "Today Afghanistan is a narco-state, that itself is a huge contributor of instability in Afghanistan." Ghani said Afghanistan was "a failed state now, which means it's a long term problem." "Placing all the blame at Pakistan's doorstep is wrong." Stability between the two countries was linked, he argued, and there would be no peace in the tribal areas without peace in Afghanistan, which required talking to the Taliban. "The bottom line is simple," he said, "that all Afghan power groups, irrespective of the length of their beards, are given due political space, they need that political share."