Obama to hold eighth Situation Room meeting on Af Pak on Wednesday

US President Barack Obama will convene another Situation Room meeting with his close national security aides at the White House on Wednesday to find the right strategy that works in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

This is the eighth in the series of Situation Room meetings which the US President has been holding since mid-August as part of his plan to find the right strategy for the region.

Initial media reports indicated that Obama was scheduled to announce his new Af-Pak strategy before his departure for Asia later this week, but this seems to now have been delayed.

“I have not been told when it (announcement of the Af-Pak policy) is going to be, but I think it is doubtful that it will happen prior to Thursday (the day when Obama departs for Asia),” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters.

“Not likely, I wouldn’t think,” Gibbs said when asked if the announcement of the Af-Pak policy would happen during Obama’s Asia trip.

Gibbs said tomorrow’s meeting is in line of the previous ones – wherein he met his close defence, security and intelligence aides. He also said that the Pentagon was working on additional set of recommendations.

“I think there’s no doubt that this is a topic that will be addressed in some of the meetings that he has throughout the trip. I think, along with things like Iran and non-proliferation and North Korea, I think in meeting with people throughout the trip, this will certainly be a topic,” Gibbs said.

Earlier, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the United States is helping both Afghanistan and Pakistan to successfully tackle terrorism in their area.

“What we are doing in Afghanistan and Pakistan is we are siding with the governments there who are seeking to counter the kind of violent extremism that we have seen with the Taliban and al Qaeda and other terrorist groups,” he said.

“We are making a partnership with the governments – both in Kabul and Islamabad, to try and help them deal with this – with these groups inside their borders and that are crossing between the two countries, and helping them provide a secure environment where the people of Afghanistan and the people of Waziristan can focus on what’s important, and that’s building their country’s infrastructure, providing educational and economic opportunities for their children, and in general, just a more peaceful and prosperous future,” Kelly said.