US ruled out possibility of war with Pakistan

[Neo]

US ruled out possibility of war with Pakistan

26 October, 2011

WASHINGTON: The United States has ruled out any possibility of war with Pakistan and said Pakistan's cooperation against al-Qaeda is important.

Briefing media persons in Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland ruled out any possibility of war with Pakistan. In response to a question about Afghan president Karzai's statement that Afghanistan would side with Pakistan in case of a US attack, she said: "It is not an issue because it is not going to happen."

She said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her delegation members had very frank and productive conversations with the Pakistani authorities about the need to fight against and talk to terrorists. She said the US has intensified Afghan-led efforts to clean out safe havens on the Afghanistan side of the border.

"We are looking to work with Pakistan to do more against safe havens on the Pakistani side," she said. "We are prepared to talk to terrorists who leave the battlefield and respect the red lines drawn by the Afghan government for this process," said the spokesperson.

She said Secretary Clinton had specifically talked about the need to squeeze the Haqqani network and the ways in which the US wanted Pakistanis to take a lead on it. However, the concern is that if Pakistan does not deal with this threat now, it will come back to bite it, Nuland said: "We had a similar message when we were starting our work together against al-Qaeda, which has been quite successful."

Nuland said the US had a very timely and serious consultation about the Haqqani network with Pakistan and it was now time to move forward with the agreed work plan and see concrete actions.

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Jay Carney said relations between the two allies were "complicated but important," adding that the US-Pakistan cooperative relationship was vital to curbing militancy in the region. "Our cooperation with Pakistan continues and is vital to our efforts to combat al-Qaeda," he said.

When asked by reporters to comment on Karzai's avowed support for Pakistan in case of an attack by the US, Carney said: "That's a hypothetical that doesn't have a lot of bearing on current reality."

US ruled out possibility of war with Pakistan - PakTribune