Obama: Pakistan has links to "unsavoury characters"

Oct 6, 2011, 18:00 GMT

Washington - US President Barack Obama charged Thursday that Pakistan has had connections with 'unsavoury characters' in Afghanistan and warned that in order to maintain long-term relationship, Islamabad must be alert to Washington's concerns.

'There's no doubt that, you know, we're not going to feel comfortable with a long-term strategic relationship with Pakistan if we don't think that they're mindful of our interests as well,' Obama told a White House press conference.

Obama said he thought that Pakistan had 'hedged their bets in terms of what Afghanistan would look like, and part of hedging their bets is having interactions with some of the unsavoury characters who they think might end up regaining power in Afghanistan after coalition forces have left.'

He called on Pakistan to instead realize it was in their interest to have a stable Afghanistan.

He said however the US would not now consider pulling humanitarian aid to Pakistan, adding 'I'd be hesitant to punish, you know, aid for flood victims in Pakistan because of poor decisions by their intelligence services.'

Last month, Admiral Mike Mullen, then serving as the top US military officer, called the Islamist Haqqani network in Afghanistan 'a veritable arm of Pakistan's internal services intelligence agency.'

US-Pakistani tensions increased following Mullen's remarks, but had already been strained since the US raid that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan earlier this year.

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