By NNN-APP,
Washington : Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday said Pakistan’s concerns over implications of U.S. actions on Afghan side of the porous Durand Line are understandable but pledged to make the case for “more help” from Islamabad in targetting al-Qaeda and Afghan Taliban, who, she claimed, are operating in the Pakistani border region.
Defending President Barack Obama’s new strategy – that sanctions deployment of additional 30,000 American troops in Afghanistan – Clinton also sought to assure Islamabad that U.S. relations with Pakistan will be independent of conflict-ridden neighboring Afghanistan.
“There is a lot of concern in Pakistan about what our commitment means both in terms of whether we put more troops in or not, whether we leave them in or not.
The Pakistanis understandably worry that our actions in Afghanistan increase cross-border efforts that threaten them, which they are not obviously in favor of seeing increase,” she acknowledged in response to a lawmaker’s qeustion at a hearing of the full Senate Armed Services Committee.
“We have worked very hard with our Pakistani counterparts to explain that we have a long term commitment to Pakistan, we are not going to be in and out the way we have in the past. We want to be partners with Pakistanis.
“We want to be supporting their democracy and their development and that is independent from Afghanistan. But that we have unfinished business in Afghanistan and that requires us to take the steps which the President (Obama) has outlined. But that we also are asking for more help from the Pakistanis to go after al-Qaeda and the leadership of the Afghan Taliban inside their own territory.”
Clinton spoke as Pakistan anxiously weighed in on the fallout of military escalation in the Afghan areas near its border. Islamabad fears that fighting in the Afghan border provinces will push more militants into its territory, adding to the troubles it has been trying to deal with since 2001-02, when a number of foreign militants found their way into the Pakistani tribal areas.
The top U.S. diplomat told lawmakers in answer‘to another question that Pakistan understands that having a destabilizing Afghanistan that offers training ground for those who threaten them is not in their interest.
Clinton praised the Pakistani military action against the Pakistani Taliban in the northwester regions as well as the widespread public backing for anti-militant campaign but demanded Pakistan should do more to target all militants.
“They have certainly demonstrated over the last year their commitment and willingness to take on the Pakistani Taliban who directly threaten them — And I think the unity of support that the people of Pakistan are showing for this effort is profoundly significant. But as we have said it is not enough. It’s difficult to parse out the different groups that are operating within Pakistan. All of them, we think, are connected in one way or another with al-Qaeda and partition some off and go after the other.
“So it will be our continuing effort — to make the case that the Pakistanis have to do more against all of the insurgents, terrorist groups that are threatening them, us in Afghanistan and the Afghan people, that are threatening other neighbors in the region. And we hope we will be able to make that case successfully.”
Washington relies heavily on Pakistan for transporting supplies for U.S. and NATO troops based in landlocked Afghanistan. Pakistan has deployed more than a 100,000 troops on its Afghan border since 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.
According to the State Department Pakistan has been the biggest victim of terrorism in the last two years, losing hundreds of people to a wave of retaliatory terrorist bombings.
Islamabad also says it has lost more than $ 50 billion in economic activity to unrest ensuing from anti-terror struggle, particularly on its western border with Afghanistan.