Friday, April 24, 2009
Gates says Pakistan must act against militant threat; Clinton urges shift in traditional focus from India to extremism
WASHINGTON: The United States expressed extreme concern on Thursday about advances by the Taliban in Pakistan and said the issue was taking up a significant amount of President Barack Obama’s time.
“I think the news over the past several days is very disturbing, the administration is extremely concerned,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, noting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s “candid” comments on the issue on Wednesday.
“We are extremely concerned about the situation and it is something that takes a lot of the president’s time,” he said. “What is happening in Pakistan and Afghanistan is the central foreign policy focus of this administration.”
Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Pakistani leaders must act to stop Taliban militants who are posing a threat to the country’s stability. Gates told reporters that in his discussions with Pakistani leaders, the government appeared to grasp the threat posed by Taliban militants, but he stressed the leadership needed to take action. “It is important they not only recognise it (the threat), but take the appropriate actions to deal with it,” said Gates, when asked about the Taliban’s recent move beyond the Swat Valley.
“The stability and the longevity of democratic government in Pakistan are central to the efforts of the coalition in Afghanistan,” Gates warned. “And it is also central to our future partnership with the government in Islamabad. It is important they recognise the real threats to their country,” the US defence secretary added at a press conference in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
Besides, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Pakistan is beginning to recognise the severity of the threat posed by an extremist insurgency that is encroaching on major urban areas.
Clinton told a House of Representatives Appropriations subcommittee that the Obama administration is working to convince the Pakistani government that its traditional focus on India as a threat has to shift to the Islamic extremists.
“Changing paradigms and mindsets is not easy, but I do believe there is an increasing awareness of not just the Pakistani government but the Pakistani people that this insurgency coming closer and closer to major cities does pose such a threat,” the secretary of state said.
She said that the administration’s special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, has had ìpainful, specific” conversations with a wide range of Pakistanis about the need to act more effectively against the insurgents.
“There is a significant opportunity here for us working in collaboration with the Pakistani government to help them get the support they need to make that mindset change and act more vigorously against this threat,” she said, adding: “There are no promises. They have to do it.”
Clinton met with scepticism from some committee members who expressed doubt about prospects for succeeding in Pakistan. Democratic Rep David Obey told her he worries that the Obama administration’s policy agenda, domestic and foreign, could be ìdevoured’’ by the Pakistan-Afghanistan problem.
“I have absolutely no confidence in the ability of the existing Pakistan government to do one blessed thing,” Obey said. One measure of progress in Pakistan, she said, is the extent to which the Pakistani military is shifting its troops from the Indian border to the Afghan border, where the Taliban threat has been expanding.
Clinton was appearing before the appropriations panel that is reviewing the administration’s request for $7.1 billion in additional money for the State Department this budget year. Of that total, $497 million would be for State Department support of Pakistan and $980 million would be for Afghanistan. About $ 482 million would be for Iraq.
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