News
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Pakistan more willing to act against terrorism: Obama* US president says his government’s goal is to break down old suspicions, bad habits and continue to work with Pakistani government
WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama has said he is seeing a growing recognition among Pakistan’s leaders that extremist groups based in the country represent a “cancer in their midst”.
After a meeting at the White House on Wednesday with visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Obama said Pakistani leaders were recognising that the groups that were using the border areas as a base were threatening Pakistan’s sovereignty. Obama said it would take time for Pakistan to assert control in the border areas that had been “loosely governed” until now. He said the Pakistani authorities were starting to do that, but it was “not going to happen overnight”. He said while full control over the historically ungoverned areas would take time, continued international engagement with Islamabad and Kabul was essential. He said the US and Afghan officials had been highlighting to Pakistani leaders that the security of all three countries was “intertwined”.
Addressing a joint press conference along with his Afghan counterpart, Obama said Washington had been encouraged by Pakistan’s recent anti-militant gains in the Tribal Areas. “But just as it is going to take time for Afghanistan’s economy... to fully recover from 30 years of war, it is going to take some time for Pakistan even where there is a will to find a way to effectively deal with these extremists in areas that are loosely governed from Islamabad.” The US president praised Islamabad’s anti-terrorism commitment, and highlighted the vitality of sustained engagement with Pakistan in the context of grappling with the extremist challenge in the border areas.
Obama also called for regional cooperation to stem the tide of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, and especially highlighted cooperation with Pakistan “because our strategy has to succeed on both sides of the border”.
“Our goal is to break down some of the old suspicions and the old bad habits and continue to work with the Pakistani government to see their interest in a stable Afghanistan, which is free from foreign meddling,” he said. agencies
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk