{"id":202931,"date":"2019-06-26T11:38:08","date_gmt":"2019-06-26T06:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=202931"},"modified":"2019-06-26T12:03:48","modified_gmt":"2019-06-26T06:33:48","slug":"pompeo-cancelled-sl-visit-because-us-failed-to-persuade-sl-to-accept-sofa-athas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pompeo-cancelled-sl-visit-because-us-failed-to-persuade-sl-to-accept-sofa-athas\/","title":{"rendered":"Pompeo Cancelled SL Visit Because US Failed To Persuade SL To Accept SOFA: Athas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senior defense and political columnist Iqbal Athas<\/span><\/strong><\/a> in an interview this morning said U.S. Secretary Mike Pompeo cancelled his visit to Sri Lanka because the U.S. failed to persuade Sri Lanka to accept SOFA\/VFA – the Status of or Visiting Forces Agreement.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Iqbal Athas<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cHis visit to Sri Lanka was to be for 3.5 hours, during which he was even planning to visit Trincomalee. However it was called off last minute,\u201d Athas told adding, if Pompeo\u2019s visit had gone ahead. moves were in place to close down shops, put up black flags and stage a harthal in the area.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Embassy however said Pompeo\u2019s visit was cancelled due to scheduling issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cPompeo ended up cancelling the visit because they could not persuade Sri Lanka to accept SoFA,\u201d Athas said this morning, speaking lengthily of the dangers of defense commitments Sri Lanka has made with the U.S. resulting in a grave blow to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

Making a \u2018one-time-only\u2019 appearance in the Pathikada current affairs discussion this morning he revealed details of underhand moves by the U.S. to ensure passing of SOFA.<\/p>\n

Athas notes the U.S. has informed the Government of Sri Lanka there is no need to even formally sign the SOFA\/VFA and that a letter from GoSL would suffice stating that Sri Lanka agrees to all the points and conditions laid out in the SOFA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis preposition by the U.S. – the fact that a letter by itself would suffice to activate SOFA – speaks of the deterioration of our security system,\u201d Athas pointed out.<\/p>\n

The senior columnist also revealed details of the way U.S. exploited \u2018divided loyalties\u2019 of officials in state service to carefully manipulate the government into signing the defense pact ACSA (Acquisition and Cross Services Agreement).<\/p>\n

Athas said the copy of ACSA agreement tabled before the cabinet had been craftily submitted in a way that the Sinhala and English versions were different to one another.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sinhala copies had only eight pages but the English copy contained 83 pages\u2026 Most of the Ministers read only the Sinhala version,\u201d Athas revealed. The new ACSA was signed as an open ended bilateral pact as opposed to the same agreement signed by Gota in 2007 which expired in 2017.<\/p>\n

He also notes – as extensively pointed out in his weekly Sunday Times columns – that U.S. deployed a whole host of government officials including then Foreign Secretary Prasad Kariyawasam and even then Foreign Minister Mangala Samraweera, to push forward ACSA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know of an instance that Kariyawasam flew down from Washington to specifically expedite the approval,\u201d he told this morning.<\/p>\n

Athas points out that by hoodwinking the cabinet and getting the ACSA signed, Sri Lanka has committed itself to accommodating a US military footprint and to move troops and ammunition any time in Lankan territory in respect of a combat issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy are we opening our country up for this and creating suspicions in our neighbourhood?\u201d he questioned.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, President Sirisena during his meeting with the media heads this morning stressed about how he is completely against the ACSA and the SOFA and would not allow SOFA to be signed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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