The US state department indicated that “clearly there was more to be done” when asked about the comments made by Cameron on Wednesday in Bangalore.
The Obama administration has been trying to disregard the WikiLeaks as “old news,” but it suddenly ratcheted up the pressure on Pakistan by endorsing British prime minister David Cameron’s remarks in India that the West would not tolerate the export of terror by Pakistan.
The US state department indicated that “clearly there was more to be done” when asked about the comments made by Cameron on Wednesday in Bangalore which set off a furious diplomatic row between London and Islamabad after Cameron accused elements of the Pakistani state of promoting the export of terrorism.
US state department spokesman PJ Crowley told reporters, “Well, we don’t want to see the export of terror by any country. We are concerned about and have said many times that extremist elements within the borders of Pakistan, in the tribal areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan, first and foremost represent a threat to Pakistan and to Afghanistan.”
“We have seen, extremists with links to these areas have made their way to Europe, have made their way to the US,” he said.
Despite angry responses from Pakistani officials, Cameron says he will continue the plain diplomatic talk — and seems to have inspired Hillary Clinton’s state department.
When a reporter raised the point that Britain, one of America’s main allies in the war on terror, seemed unhappy with Pakistan, Crowley said, “Pakistan has, in our view, made a strategic shift in the last year. It has taken aggressive action at considerable expense to Pakistan. (But)… there is more to be done.”
He added, “Our joint concern here is to eliminate the safe havens that exist in the region and to prevent the emergence of new safe havens from which there can be the export of terrorism that can threaten the US, Europe or other parts of the world.”
Pakistan has faced mounting US pressure to take tougher action against the Haqqani network, the al-Qaida linked group that directs operations against US forces in Afghanistan from safe havens in Pakistan.
The Indian embassy in Kabul was also attacked in 2008 and 2009 by the Jalaluddin Haqqani network. It was done at the at behest of Inter Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s spy agency.
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