Brussels: We must continue to cooperate closely with Pakistan despite US claims that Pakistan’s main intelligence agency, ISI – Inter Services Intelligence – was assisting Taliban allied troops in Afghanistan, NATO’s Secretary General has said.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen declined to comment over the claims leveled by Admiral Mike Mullen, recently retired US military’s top official, that ISI supported attacks on US and NATO facilities by Pakistan-based Haqqani militants.
He told the Financial Times that regardless of possible links, “I don’t think there are many alternatives” to working with the Pakistani military and government leadership to convince them to clamp down on the Haqqani operation.
“Whatever might be the links between the Haqqani network and authorities in Pakistan, the bottom line remains the same,” Rasmussen said.
“Pakistan must deal with it and make sure terrorists don’t have safe havens in Pakistan, and we need a close partnership and a positive partnership with Pakistan.”
US expectations of Pakistani forces moving against the Haqqani network are low.
The Pakistani army insists that existing efforts to clear militants along the Afghan border have left it “too stretched” to launch new, and domestically unpopular, operations. The country’s civilian and military leaders say that the US has failed to understand the complexity of the alliances and threats in the tribal areas along the border.
“Pakistan cannot be sidelined from any settlement on Afghanistan,” Ahmed Mukhtar, Pakistan’s defence minister, told the FT.
“Pakistan and Afghanistan must co-operate to stabilise the region, otherwise peace will remain a distant prospect. Nobody can ignore Pakistan’s centrality to a successful end to the Afghan campaign.”
Relations between Islamabad and Washington have reached new lows in recent months following the Obama administration’s decision to raid Osama bin Laden’s Pakistani compound without consent from the Pakistan government and Admiral Mullen’s allegations against the ISI, made on Capitol Hill last month.
The NATO general secretary denied that the new hardline stance taken by the Obama administration risked up-ending his push to continue close co-operation with Islamabad.
He said he still considered Pakistan “a partner” in NATO’s Afghan campaign and believed Pakistan’s leadership could be incentivised to take a more aggressive stance towards the Haqqanis and affiliated extremist groups.
“I don’t believe we have other ways to deal with this than continue to work with the Pakistanis and really make sure they understand we have a common interest,” he said.
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