ISLAMABAD: The United States decided not to take Pakistan into confidence before launching an attack on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad in May 2011 since it suspected that "certain elements" in the country had links with militant Islamist factions and were likely to warn the target, former US president Barack Obama recalls in his memoir, A Promised Land, which was launched earlier this week.
"Although Pakistan's government cooperated with us on a host of counterterrorism operations and provided a vital supply path for our forces in Afghanistan, it was an open secret that certain elements inside the country's military, and especially its intelligence services, maintained links to the Taliban and perhaps even al-Qaeda, sometimes using them as strategic assets to ensure that the Afghan government remained weak and unable to align itself with Pakistan's number one rival, India," he writes while providing details of the operation that killed the top al-Qaeda leader.
Obama, who took the Oval Office in January 2009, recalls how some people thought he was going to set the bin Laden issue aside after becoming the president, though he called his close confidantes in May 2009 following a Situation Room meeting and asked them to prepare a viable plan to hunt down the al-Qaeda leader.
"I want to make the hunt for bin Laden a top priority," he told his team. "I want to see a formal plan for how we're going to find him. I want a report on my desk every thirty days describing our progress."
It took a little more than a year for the breakthrough to arrive when Obama’s Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta announced, only a day ahead of the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, that the US had the best "potential lead" on the al-Qaeda chief "since Tora Bora."
The US president was told that American spies had traced "a man known as Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, who they believed served as an al-Qaeda courier and had known ties to bin Laden."
"They had been tracking his phone and daily habits, which had led them not to some remote location in the FATA but rather to a large compound in an affluent neighborhood on the outskirts of the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, thirty-five miles north of Islamabad," Obama writes in his memoir, remembering how the size and the structure of the place raised suspicion that the building was used by some high-value militant target.
"The compound itself was unusually spacious and secure, eight times larger than neighboring residences, surrounded by ten- to eighteen-foot walls topped with barbed wire, and with additional walls inside the perimeter. As for the people who lived there, the analysts said they went to great lengths to conceal their identities: They had no landline or internet service, almost never left the compound, and burned their trash instead of putting it outside for collection," Obama says.
"[T]hrough aerial surveillance, our team had been able to observe a tall man who never left the property but regularly walked in circles in a small garden area within the compound's walls. 'We call him the Pacer,' the lead officer said. 'We think he could be bin Laden,'" he adds.
Obama recalls that his vice president Joe Biden was against the idea of launching the raid and thought that the administration "should defer any decision until the intelligence community was more certain that bin Laden was in the compound."
The president also realized that an attack on the compound "would involve violating the territory of a putative ally in the most egregious way possible, short of war — raising both the diplomatic stakes and the operational complexities."
After bin Laden was killed and his body identified, however, Obama anticipated a difficult conversation with Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari who, he thought, would face a backlash at home.
"When I reached him, however, he expressed congratulations and support. 'Whatever the fallout,' he said, 'it's very good news.' He showed genuine emotion, recalling how his wife, Benazir Bhutto, had been killed by extremists with reported ties to al-Qaeda."
Zardari also published an article in The Washington Post the next day, calling Pakistan "the world's greatest victim of terrorism" and expressing "satisfaction that the source of the greatest evil of the new millennium has been silenced."
However, the country's top military and intelligence officials had to face pointed questions during a joint session of parliament that was held in camera and amid tight security.
Pakistan deliberately kept out of loop during bin Laden operation, writes Obama
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Pakistan deliberately kept out of loop during bin Laden operation, writes Obama
- In his memoir, the former US president says he anticipated a 'difficult' conversation with his Pakistani counterpart, but Zardari expressed 'congratulations and support'
- Obama recalls he instructed his team to make the hunt for bin Laden a top priority soon after taking the Oval Office in January 2009
Pakistan says defense pact with Saudi Arabia elevated brotherly ties to ‘new heights’
- Pakistan, Saudi Arabia signed strategic defense pact last year pledging aggression against one will be treated as attack on both
- Deputy PM Ishaq Dar says enduring bonds with Islamic and Arab nations form vital pillar of Pakistan’s foreign policy
ISLAMABAD: Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar said on Wednesday that Pakistan’s defense pact with Saudi Arabia elevated its brotherly ties with the Kingdom to “new heights,” stressing that close ties with Arab and Islamic nations form a key pillar of Islamabad’s foreign policy.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed a Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement on Sept. 17 last year, pledging that aggression against one country would be treated as an attack on both, enhancing joint deterrence and formalizing decades of military and security cooperation.
Both nations agreed in October 2025 to launch an economic cooperation framework to strengthen trade and investment ties.
“In the Middle East, our landmark Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement with Saudi Arabia has elevated our brotherly ties to new heights,” Dar said while speaking at the Pakistan Governance Forum 2026 event in Islamabad.
The Pakistani deputy prime minister was speaking on the topic “Navigating International Relations Amidst Changing Geo-Politics.”
Dar noted that Pakistan has reinforced partnerships with other Middle Eastern nations such as the UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Oman, Egypt and Bahrain. He said these partnerships have yielded “concrete agreements” in investment, agriculture, infrastructure, and energy sectors.
“Our enduring bonds with Islamic and Arab nations form a vital pillar of our foreign policy, and we will continue to expand our partnerships across Asia, Latin America, and Africa,” he said.
Dar pointed out that the presidents of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have undertaken visits to Pakistan in recent months, reflecting Central Asian nations’ desire to boost cooperation with Islamabad.
On South Asia, the Pakistani deputy PM said Pakistan has successfully transformed its fraternal ties with Bangladesh into “a substantive partnership.”
“Similarly, the trilateral mechanism involving China, Pakistan, and Bangladesh has been launched with a view to expanding and deepening regional cooperation and synergy,” the Pakistani minister said.
He said Islamabad has strengthened its “all-weather” partnership with China via the second phase of the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor agreement and “unwavering support” from both sides for each other’s core interests.
Dar said Pakistan had also reinvigorated its partnership with the US, advancing cooperation in trade, technology, investment, and regional stability.
“This calibrated approach has enhanced our ability to navigate complexity with skill and confidence, ensuring that our national interests are served without compromising our core foreign policy principles,” he said.
