Clinton calls for 'decisive steps'
Source: Agencies |
May 28, 2011, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
PAKISTAN needs to take decisive steps against Islamist militancy, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday, adding that relations between the two allies, tense since the killing of Osama bin Laden, had reached a turning point.
Clinton, the most senior US official to visit Pakistan since the al-Qaida leader was killed earlier this month, appeared to be trying to smooth over strains, repeating that there was no evidence that any senior Pakistani official had known of bin Laden's whereabouts.
But she also said she had asked Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani as well as army chief General Ashfaq Kayani to do more to fight militants.
"This was an especially important visit because we have reached a turning point," Clinton told reporters after meeting the Pakistani officials with chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen.
"We look to Pakistan, to the government of Pakistan to take decisive steps in the days ahead." But she and other American officials declined to say what those steps should be.
Clinton said Pakistani officials had told her "someone, somewhere" had been providing support for bin Laden, but there was no evidence of complicity by senior government officials.
"We are trying to untangle the puzzle of bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad," she said. "But I want to stress again, that we have absolutely no reason to believe that anyone in the highest level of the government knew that."
Clinton, the most senior US official to visit Pakistan since the al-Qaida leader was killed earlier this month, appeared to be trying to smooth over strains, repeating that there was no evidence that any senior Pakistani official had known of bin Laden's whereabouts.
But she also said she had asked Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani as well as army chief General Ashfaq Kayani to do more to fight militants.
"This was an especially important visit because we have reached a turning point," Clinton told reporters after meeting the Pakistani officials with chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen.
"We look to Pakistan, to the government of Pakistan to take decisive steps in the days ahead." But she and other American officials declined to say what those steps should be.
Clinton said Pakistani officials had told her "someone, somewhere" had been providing support for bin Laden, but there was no evidence of complicity by senior government officials.
"We are trying to untangle the puzzle of bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad," she said. "But I want to stress again, that we have absolutely no reason to believe that anyone in the highest level of the government knew that."
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