The United States on Thursday told Pakistan it can’t pick and choose which terrorist groups it goes after and has to target militants who seek to harm its neighbours by taking refuge on its territory.
“We have a strong bilateral relationship with Pakistan, but one that is premised on counterterrorism cooperation and as — as part of that conversation, or that dialogue and that cooperation that we have on counterterrorism issues, we made it very clear that Pakistan can’t pick and choose which terrorist groups it goes after,” US Department of State Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner said in his daily briefing on Thursday.
Toner also rejected the statement made by Jamaat ud Dawa (JuD) Chief Hafiz Saeed, saying “I would dismiss it [Saeed’s comments] outright.”
The JuD chief, in a seminar on Wednesday, said that consensus between New Delhi and Washington DC was “frightening”.
“The new pact between India and America is against Pakistan, against CPEC; in fact, I believe it is against the Muslim World and its bulwark Pakistan. This is a very frightening pact.” Saeed said, adding that the US had issues with China while India had a bone to pick with Pakistan and both had joined hands in their ‘war’ against CPEC.
He said, “This is the basis of their new pact. This is the preparation of a terrifying war.”
“India and America are worried that if the CPEC project succeeded, the entire Muslim World would stand beside Pakistan. And, the (resultant) new defence and economic pacts that will take place will oust America not only from this region and the Middle East, but from all important places and waters of the world. America will have to get out of all these places. That is why today the biggest hurdle before them is Pakistan,” he added.
India on Sunday had raised its concern with China over the CPEC when Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit that the two countries needed to be “sensitive” to each other’s strategic interests.
Referring to the remarks made by Secretary of State John Kerry during his recent trip to India and Bangladesh, Toner said, “The US has had very frank conversations with Pakistan’s leadership and military leadership about the need to focus more efforts on those terrorist groups — all the terrorist groups rather, that are operating from within Pakistani soil- or territory rather.”
On Tuesday, Toner said that the US had ruled out sanctions against Pakistan, adding that the country’s recent counter-terrorism operations were ‘encouraging’.
On being asked if the US would consider placing sanctions on Pakistan for not taking enough action against terrorist networks, the spokesperson said, “I don’t think we’re even at that point…We continue to have conversations with the highest level of the government of Pakistan. And our basic point in all of these conversations is that Pakistan must target all militant groups, including those that target Pakistan’s neighbors, and eliminate all safe havens.”
Responding to a question regarding a recent statement by former US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad calling for the US to seriously consider the option of imposing sanctions on Pakistan, Toner said, “We have been encouraged by some of the steps they’ve taken, some of their recent counter-terrorism operations along the border of Afghanistan. And we’re going to continue to work with them to increase those efforts and apply more pressure on these groups. But, the suggestion of any kind of sanctions, we’re not there.”
Toner added that Pakistani authorities continued to assure their intentions to take stronger steps against terrorists.
Reiterating that the US had long encouraged and pushed Pakistan to go after all terrorist groups, including those responsible for the Mumbai attacks, Toner said, “We want to see accountability and justice in the case of the Mumbai attacks. We’ve long encouraged and pushed for greater counter-terrorism cooperation, and that includes the sharing of intelligence between India and Pakistan in that regard. That continues; those efforts continue.”
Referring to the remarks made by Secretary of State John Kerry during his recent trip to India and Bangladesh, Toner said, “The US has had very frank conversations with Pakistan’s leadership and military leadership about the need to focus more efforts on those terrorist groups — all the terrorist groups rather, that are operating from within Pakistani soil- or territory rather.”
“We continue to have that discussion with them. We have seen some efforts to make progress in that regard. We’re going to continue to have those conversations with them as we move forward. And it’s in Pakistan’s interest, it’s in Afghanistan’s interest to go after these terrorist groups, to root them out, and to destroy them,” Toner said.
http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2016/09/09/national/pakistan-cant-pick-and-choose-terror-groups-to-go-after-us/#
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