US President Barack Obama on Friday said Pakistan must "take care" of the extremist Haqqani network, as a fierce dispute raged over US claims the group was an arm of Islamabad's intelligence agency. Obama did not endorse the accusations, made by retiring chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, but said US intelligence was not entirely clear on links between Haqqani operatives and ISI.
"I think Mike's testimony expressed frustration over the fact that safe havens exist, including the Haqqani network safe haven inside Pakistan," Obama said on the Michael Smerconish syndicated radio show. "I think that the intelligence is not as clear as we might like in terms of what exactly that relationship is," Obama said.
"But my attitude is whether there is active engagement with Haqqani on the part of the Pakistanis or just passively allowing them to operate with impunity in some of these border regions, they have got to take care of this problem." Last week, Mullen accused Pakistan of exporting violence to Afghanistan through proxies and charged that the Haqqani network, an al Qaeda-linked group, was a "veritable arm" of Pakistani intelligence.
Obama said in the interview that there was "no doubt" that the US relationship with Pakistan "is not where it needs to be" though he did note outstanding co-operation with Islamabad in the fight against al Qaeda. "We are going to keep on pressing them to recognise it is in their interests, not just ours, to make sure extremists are not operating within their borders."
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