Obama’s aide to visit India

US president Barack Obama’s top security adviser James Jones will visit Afghanistan and Pakistan to monitor implementation of the new United States war plan, an official said on Monday.

Jones, who will also visit India, will meet local officials, US diplomats, military personnel and representatives of nations battling alongside US troops in the Afghan war coalition.

“At the request of the president, national security advisor Jim Jones is travelling to Afghanistan and Pakistan to follow-up on the implementation of our new, comprehensive strategy,” said national security council spokesman Mike Hammer.
Obama put Pakistan at the centre of the US fight against Al Qaeda when he unveiled a war strategy in March to commit thousands more troops and billions of dollars to the Afghan war.

Exact dates of the visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan were not released for security reasons. Sources in India, however, had disclosed over the weekend that Jones would be in New Delhi on June 25.

“General Jones will also visit India at the invitation of his counterpart, national security advisor MK Narayanan,” said Hammer.

“General Jones’s visit to New Delhi is part of our ongoing effort to further deepen and strengthen our key bilateral partnership with India.”

Jones’s trip was made public as The New York Times reported on Monday that the US military commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, had said he would sharply restrict the use of air strikes in an effort to reduce civilian deaths.