Clinton: Pakistan must eliminate militant safe havens

Oct 21, 2011, 8:46 GMT

Islamabad - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Friday on Pakistan to put an end to safe havens for Taliban militants on its soil, saying the country had a critical role to play in the Afghan peace process.

'Coalition and Afghan forces are increasing the pressure on the Taliban in Afghanistan and across the border,' she said at a press conference with her Pakistani counterpart, Hina Rabbani Khar.

'We look to Pakistan to take strong steps to deny Afghan insurgents safe havens and to encourage the Taliban to enter negotiations in good faith,' she said.

Responding to a question about action against the militants, she said, 'we asked very specifically for greater cooperation from the Pakistani side to squeeze the Haqqani network and other terrorists.'

Clinton visits Pakistan at a time when relations between the two countries have become increasingly strained, ever since the killing of former al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in a US raid on a compound in Pakistan's north-western city of Abbottabad.

The Pakistani public and military establishment condemned the unilateral US action. In response, the United States has increased pressure on Pakistan to go after a Taliban group, the Haqqani network, which operates from the north-western Pakistani district of North Waziristan.

Concerns were also growing among Pakistani security strategists that the country is being ignored as the US conducts talks with the Taliban.

Clinton - who was accompanied by CIA Director David Petraeus and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey - admitted the differences, but said there was much both countries agreed upon.

'It's no secret that the US and Pakistan do not always see eye to eye, and we will not resolve the difference in our views in any single visit,' she said. 'But it is true that, beyond the disagreements that drive the headlines, a number of our most important issues overlapped.'

'Pakistan has a critical role to play in supporting Afghan reconciliation and ending the conflict,' she added, assuring Pakistan that it would be consulted in the Afghan peace process.

She said a process for reconciliation in Afghanistan was discussed with Pakistani leaders, emphasizing that the process should be 'transparent.'

Khar said Pakistan was committed to 'an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned process of reconciliation.' We have a shared interest in ending the militancy in the region, she said.

Clinton also had one-on-one and delegation-level meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari, who sought greater cooperation with the US, saying that 'public criticism of Pakistan's role undermines our common struggle against militancy.'

The secretary of state also had interaction with Pakistani students and young entrepreneurs and responded to a number of question ranging from militants threats to economic opportnuites.

Clinton traveled from Afghanistan on Thursday and also met with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, the military chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and intelligence chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha Thursday.

She called the talks serious and constructive.

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