ISI-CIA talks likely to patch up differences

Pakistan's premier spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence and United States' Central Intelligence Agency are close to resolving their issues, with their behind-the-scene negotiations reportedly making progress.

An end to the feud will not only help resolve the dispute over immunity for jailed CIA operative Raymond Davis, but also help the United States and Pakistan overcome the hard patch in their relationship.

"There are some positive developments in ongoing negotiations," the Dawn quoted a security official, as saying, without specifying how much ground the two sides had covered so far.

He, however, said that both sides were 'grudgingly accommodating each other' to save the overall bilateral relationship.

The Davis episode was just the latest manifestation of the problems in the CIA-ISI relations that had been going on for some time.

The fallout found varying expressions, be it the frequent CIA allegations of Pakistanis patronising jihadi groups and being insincere in the fight against extremists, or filing of a law suit in a New York court by relatives of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack victims against the ISI chief, or blowing the cover of CIA's Islamabad station head Jonathan Banks, leading to his recall.

US officials confirm that there had been divergences over strategic interests and timing of anti-militancy operations -- a reference to the Pakistan military's reluctance to go after the Haqqani network based in North Waziristan.

As the situation reached the tipping point and both the agencies engaged in an ugly public spat, the ISI sought a redefinition of its terms of engagement with the CIA.

ISI's litany of complaints against the CIA included the American agency developing its own network of undeclared spies, and disregarding the ISI as an institution and sacrifices of its personnel.

The progress in negotiations achieved so far was made possible because of cool heads on both sides, who realised that keeping the ISI-CIA relationship intact was in the interest of both agencies, a source said.

Analysts believe that the outcome of the dialogue is crucial for settling the row over diplomatic immunity for Davis.