Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived here Friday for talks with Pakistan's leaders aimed at repairing the tattered relationship between the two countries in the wake of the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
She is being met by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for what one senior State Department official said would be a "sober" set of talks about the need for Pakistan to root out terrorists in its country. Clinton and Mullen will meet with President Asif Ali Zardari, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Pervaiz Kayani and Lt. Gen. Shuja Pasha, head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency.
The Pakistanis "are on thin ice," a different senior official said. Neither would speak on the record because the trip had not been officially announced.
Specifically, Clinton will tell the Pakistanis the United States is looking for Pakistan to demonstrate a willingness to go after senior al Qaeda targets, take action against factories producing improvised explosive devices for use against U.S. troops in Afghanistan and support Taliban reconciliation, the officials told CNN.
Contrary to previous visits in which Clinton unveiled detailed initiatives on future U.S. assistance to Pakistan, officials said the secretary will warn that U.S. aid is in jeopardy unless Pakistan makes progress on several key U.S. points, and will lay out certain benchmarks for the Pakistani government to meet.
"She is going to lay out in a 'no-kidding' way the results and degrees of progress that need to be met on each of these areas to constitute the relationship getting back on track," one official said.
Clinton had been expected to visit Pakistan earlier this month for more fulsome talks, as part of the two countries' "Strategic Dialogue," which covers more than a dozen areas of cooperation between Washington and Islamabad. But she postponed her visit after the raid on bin Laden's compound by U.S. Navy SEALs.
The revelation that the al Qaeda leader was living in plain sight for years amongst Pakistani military installations, and Pakistan's humiliation at the U.S. decision to undertake the raid without telling them, has thrown the relationship into one of its worst points in history, and officials say cooperation between the two sides has slowed significantly.
Officials said Clinton felt it was important not to let the mistrust on both sides fester and decided to make a short visit to deliver a two-fold message: Pakistan is on thin ice with its U.S. ally, but the relationship between the two sides is too important to abandon.
"The fact of the matter is that the international community has been able to kill more terrorists on Pakistani soil than any place else in the world. We could not have done that without Pakistani cooperation," Clinton told reporters in Paris earlier this week. "I believe strongly it is in our national security interests to have a comprehensive, long-term partnership with the government and people of Pakistan."
Clinton added that the United States has "across the board" expectations of what they want the Pakistan government to meet. Last week, Marc Grossman, special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, traveled to Islamabad, where he delivered the set of demands, emphasizing the United States needed actions, not words from Pakistan, according to a senior official briefed on the talks. The official was not authorized to speak on the record.
During several meetings with Zardari, Kayani and Pasha, Grossman said the United States was looking for more cooperation from Pakistan in fighting extremism. The meetings were described by a senior official briefed on the talks as "tough, but fruitful." The talks followed a visit a few days earlier by Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who delivered a similarly tough message
During the meetings with Grossman, the senior U.S. official said, Kayani voiced strong concern about the continuation of U.S. drone strikes against targets inside Pakistan, but he and other members of the Pakistani leadership expressed a willingness to press al Qaeda, conduct joint operations and support reconciliation.
Officials point to enough progress since Grossman's visit, including the fact Pakistan returned the tail of a helicopter that was left behind after the raid, for Clinton to make the trip to Pakistan.
But they say the relationship between the two countries needs serious repairing before cooperation on areas important to Pakistan can continue. Two weeks ago, the Pakistanis asked the United States to reduce the number of military trainers in Pakistan. A Pentagon spokesman said this week the U.S. has begun to comply and is removing some of the more than 200 personnel who are posted there.
"There is sufficient agreement that we have to find a way forward," one official said. "But there are a few things that we need to get right as a foundation for the rest of it."This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.
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