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Friday, June 08, 2012
US losing patience with Pakistan, says Panetta* Defence secretary calls for action against Haqqani network
KABUL: United States (US) Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said on Thursday Washington was reaching the limits of its patience with Islamabad because of the safe havens the country offered to insurgents in neighbouring Afghanistan.
It was some of the strongest language used by a top US official to describe the strained ties between the US and Pakistan.
“It is difficult to achieve peace in Afghanistan as long as there is safe haven for terrorists in Pakistan,” said Panetta, speaking in the Afghan capital Kabul where he held talks with military leaders amid rising violence in the war against the Taliban and a spate of deadly attacks, including a NATO air strike said to have killed 18 villagers.
“It is very important for Pakistan to take steps. It is an increasing concern, the issue of safe haven, and we are reaching the limits of our patience,” he told reporters.
The US has long pushed Pakistan to do more to help in the war against terror, but the relationship has received a series of blows, not least by a unilateral US raid into Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden last year that humiliated Islamabad.
Panetta also urged Pakistan to go after the Haqqani network, one of the United States’ most feared enemies in Afghanistan, and said Washington would exert diplomatic pressure and take any other steps needed to protect its forces.
“It is an increasing concern that safe havens exist and those like the Haqqanis make use of that to attack our forces,” he said. “We are reaching the limits of our patience for that reason. It is extremely important for Pakistan to take action to prevent (giving) the Haqqanis safe havens, and for terrorists to use their country as a safety net to conduct attacks on our forces.”
Panetta, who left Kabul shortly afterwards, blamed the group for an attack last week on a US base in the east in which several terrorists, including some wearing suicide vests, attacked it with rocket-propelled grenades.
The attack was foiled, but it underlined the challenge facing Western and Afghan forces in the east where insurgents take advantage of the steep, often forested terrain and the Pakistani border to launch attacks and then slip across the border. reuters
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk