By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington : Placing the Haqqani Network’s tackling at the top of its counter-terrorism agenda, the Us is pushing Pakistan to act against the terror group described as “a veritable arm” of Pakistan’s spy agency.
“We continue to believe that job one between the US and Pakistan on the counterterrorism front is to tackle the Haqqani Network,” State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland told reporters Friday.
“We continue to make outreaches at all levels to our Pakistani counterparts,” she said. “I think what’s important in this case is that we continue to have very clear and candid conversations among all of the principals with their Pakistani interlocutors.”
Nuland said that US Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Marc Grossman was “on his way to the region to continue those conversations. So the dialogue continues. We’ve got to find a way to work on this together”.
Grossman, she said, would “be talking to folks both in Kabul and in Islamabad” about the value of the tripartite dialogue among US, Afghanistan, and Pakistan coming up in October even as Afghans have said they don’t want Pakistan to be a part.
At the White House, Press Secretary Jay Carney noted that members of the Haqqani Network had been designated and a review continues to designate the group itself.
The US relationship with Pakistan was “complicated but important relationship” he said noting, “our cooperation with Pakistan has helped us in the efforts against Al Qaeda”.
Meanwhile, Daniel Markey, a South Asia expert at the Council on Foreign Relations suggested that Washington must be clear with the Pakistanis on the steps the US is willing to take to destroy the Haqqani Network, if Pakistan fails to do so.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])