The US has termed the recent developments in Pakistan's Swat Valley, the peace treaty with a Taliban-linked group for enforcing Shariah law in the area, as not very positive.
The United States has termed the recent developments in Pakistan's Swat Valley, the peace treaty with a Taliban-linked group for enforcing Shariah law in the area, as not very positive.
"The direction of events in the Swat Valley are not going in a positive way," the State Department acting deputy spokesman told reporters at his daily press briefing.
The statement comes a day after Richard Holbrooke, the special US representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, expressed concern over the peace treaty and said this means
"ceding territory to the bad guys," which the US does not like.
"What we do want to see is results. We have spoken to the Pakistanis. The (US) Ambassador (to Pakistan) has spoken to the Pakistanis. They understand that the threat of terrorism is a threat to them as well as to us," Duguid said.
"What we're working towards is a way that we can all address this common problem," he said, adding that this is part of the current US review on Afghanistan.
"That is part of what we'll be talking to the Pakistanis about when the delegation arrives here," he said.
In an interview to the PBS news channel Wednesday, Holbrooke said: "We're troubled and confused in a sense about what happened in Swat because it is not an encouraging trend; previous cease-fires have broken down and we do not want to see territory ceded to the bad guys and the people who took over Swat are very bad people."
The Pentagon and NATO too have expressed concern over such a peace deal between the Taliban militants and Islamabad. In a media interview in Tokyo, the Secretary of State had expressed her concern over the entire situation in Pakistan and said that the Taliban and Al Qaeda are having a safe haven in the country.
"We understand that the instability in Pakistan, the safe haven given to al-Qaeda and to the Taliban, the alliances among the extremist groups, is a threat to the stability of the Pakistani Government, a threat to the stability of Afghanistan, and a much broader threat to the region and us," Clinton told ABC news.
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