Obama to hold fifth 'situation room' meeting on Af-Pak
Washington: US President Barack Obama will hold yet another "situation room" meeting on Friday to discuss with his key defence, security and intelligence aides the current situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The deliberation -- the fifth in the series -- will focus on the requirement of additional resources to defeat the al Qaeda and the Taliban in the region.
For the first time in all his situation room meetings since last few weeks when Obama started the process of reviewing his Af-Pak strategy, he would be discussing the issue of resources, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
"I think tomorrow (Friday) will focus a great deal on the assessment by General McChrystal and I'm sure at points will get into resource requests, yes," Gibbs told reporters in response to a question on Thursday. "As we get into Friday's discussion, there will be a larger discussion about Afghanistan, particularly, and the threats we face there," he said.
Gibbs said the President hasn't discussed the resource request with his team yet. "Obviously a decision at some point will be forthcoming," he said.
Today's meeting is expected to be attended by Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Defence Secretary Robert Gates; Special US Representative to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen; Central Command chief General David Petraeus; Director of National Intelligence Admiral (rtd) Dennis Blair; CIA director Leon Panetta; and National Security Advisor Gen (rtd) James Jones.
The US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice; General Stanley McChrystal, US Commander in Afghanistan; Karl Eikenberry, US Ambassador to Afghanistan and Anne Patterson, the US Ambassador to Pakistan would join the meeting through video conferencing.
Bureau Report