WASHINGTON: United States says Pakistan government needs to take action against the "links between its agencies and extremist organizations such as Haqqani network."
“I think we’ve been very clear about our views on this. One, that the Haqqani network was responsible for the attacks on U.S. embassy in Kabul and then ISAF, as well as some others, and that Pakistan government needs to take action to deal with links that exist there,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said.
“We work very closely with the Pakistanis and have had success due to that cooperation in fighting Al Qaeda. As I’ve said in the past, in many ways, no country has suffered more at the hands of terrorists than Pakistan. So there is a common enemy here,” he said in response to a question.
Carney also said that Obama administration is reviewing its aid programs to Pakistan. “We obviously are always reviewing our aid programs. I believe the State Department and others have talked about that. I don’t have anything new to add on that except that we obviously take it seriously and discuss these matters with our Pakistani counterparts,” he added.
The US, meanwhile, has ruled out any third country mediation between it and Pakistan to resurrect their strained bilateral relations.
“I don’t think that the US and Pakistan need a third country to mediate between them. We are working directly,” State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters when asked about media reports that other countries are being brought in to help in negotiations between the two to ease this situation.
“The US and Pakistan have a very clear and direct relationship. All of these principals have strong relationships with their counterparts,” she said, but added that the US is making a strong case before other nations about the dangers being posed by the Haqqani network.
“We are obviously making the case to other governments in the neighbourhood and around the world, who care about counterterrorism, that we consider this Haqqani network a threat to us, we consider it a threat to Pakistan, and a threat to the region,” Nuland said.
While civilian aid to Pakistan continues, the military assistance has slowed down.
“Our civilian aid, as we’ve said before, continues apace. We have slowed our assistance on the military-to-military side, for all of the reasons that we’ve discussed, that some of that aid can’t go forward unless...we can evaluate with Pakistan where we’re going to go together,” she stated.
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