By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington : Even as the United States moved to sooth Pakistan’s ruffled feathers over the death of 24 Pakistani soldiers in weekend NATO strikes, a key senator chided Islamabad for supporting the Haqqani network and other terrorist groups.
“It is important to note that certain facts in Pakistan continue to complicate significantly the ability of coalition and Afghan forces to succeed in Afghanistan,” John McCain, 2008 Republican presidential candidate said in a statement Monday.
“Pakistan’s intelligence agency continues to support the Haqqani network and other terrorist groups that are killing US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan, and the vast majority of the material used to make improvised explosive devices originates from two fertilizer factories in Pakistan,” he said.
At the same time, expressing sorrow over the weekend incident, McCain said all Americans were “deeply saddened” by the killings and backed NATO’s vow “to investigate this tragedy thoroughly and immediately.”
But the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar, told reporters relations were “very complex” and warned against calls to cut off US aid to Islamabad. “I would not recommend that we take action of that sort.”
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff described the incident as “a very challenging issue on both sides” and told reporters in London that NATO and Pakistani officials have been working hard to improve strained relations.
“[The Pakistani people] have reason to be furious, because they have 24 soldiers dead, and the ordnance that killed them was the ordnance of a partner,” he said. “But I’d certainly like to enlist their patience to find out what happened and to try to work through this.”
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])