Pakistan urges 'permanent solution' on US drone strikes

President Asif Ali Zardari pressed US to help find a ‘permanent solution’ to drone strikes. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari pressed the United States during a NATO meeting on Sunday to help find a "permanent solution" to US drone strikes that have fueled tensions between the two uneasy allies. "The president said that Pakistan wanted to find a permanent solution to the drone issue as it not only violated our sovereignty but also inflamed public sentiments due to innocent civilian casualties," presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said in a statement. The statement did not specify what such a solution might entail. Zardari, in a meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, also called for the United States to do more to make amends for the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers killed in November by U.S. aircraft along the border with Afghanistan.