AfPak envoy comes down heavy on Pakistan

Press Trust Of India
New Delhi, April 29, 2011

First Published: 14:32 IST(29/4/2011)
Last Updated: 14:34 IST(29/4/2011)

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Making it clear that Pakistan needs to do "more" to deal with the safe havens of terrorists on its soil, US AfPak envoy Marc Grossman on Friday said it will help in bringing peace to Afghanistan. On his maiden trip to New Delhi after being appointed in February as US special representative to Afghanistan-Pakistan, Grossman called on foreign secretary Nirupama Rao and held extensive consultations on the situation in the region.

"There is always more to do and we are encouraging Pakistan to do everything possible to deal with the safe havens.....which will also play a big role in bringing peace to Afghanistan," Grossman told reporters after his meeting with Rao which lasted for nearly one-and-a-half hours.

Asked about the recent remarks of chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen accusing Pakistan's ISI of backing the Haqqani network, an Afghan Taliban group, he said, "I have nothing to add or to subtract to whatever Mullen has already said. We do a huge amount of work with Pakistan in countering terrorism and extremism and that's what we will continue doing."

Appointed after the sudden death of Richard Holbrooke, Grossman since he was new to the job, it was important for him to come to India and take advantage of the expertise and experience of the "people here".

Apart from Rao, he will also be meeting other senior officials, including National Security Advisor (NSA) Shivshankar Menon before resuming his journey, which will take him to Kabul, Islamabad and Riyadh. Giving some details of the meeting with Rao, the US envoy said they discussed the Indo-US global partnership, its future and their joint projects in Afghanistan.

"We have a lot of work to do together in Afghanistan and some of that work is very important...," he said.

Recalling US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's February speech at the Asia Society, Grossman said the military surge in Afghanistan has been effective and Taliban has been degraded but his worry was that being unable to do much militarily, they might resort to terrorist attacks targeting civilians and Afghan police.


(source:.hindustantimes.com)


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