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Hitting out at Pakistan, influential US Senator Carl Levin has argued that the United States has the right to strike targets inside that country in order to defend American troops deployed in Afghanistan from militant attacks originating from Pakistani safe havens.
Levin, who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, is also making the case that Washington should be ready to abandon its partnership with Islamabad if the latter does not change its ways in dealing with the likes of Haqqani network.
“If Pakistan will not take on the threat posed by the Haqqanis and other extremist groups based in Pakistan who attack our forces in Afghanistan, then we should be prepared to take steps to defend our troops,” Levin said at the Council on Foreign Relations here.
“We have the right to target not only forces and artillery attacking our forces in Afghanistan from across the border in Pakistan, but to target the people controlling those forces as well,” he said. And quoting Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, he added: “The message (the Pakistanis) need to know is: We’re going to do everything we can to defend our forces.”
Levin’s pointed remarks came even as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was winding up her visit to Islamabad on Friday after issuing stern warnings to the Pakistani establishment.
He took the stand that the Pakistani safe havens were the greatest threat to security in Afghanistan. Slamming Islamabad for offering the same excuses over its failure to eliminate these safe havens, he commented: “At the least, Pakistan needs to condemn the attacks of the Haqqanis in Afghanistan, and Pakistani officials need to end their denials of plain truth.”
Remarking that Islamabad’s failure to act would be a “show-stopper” for normal relations with Washington, Levin said: “Our response should be that if the only option Pakistan presents us is a choice between losing an ally and continuing to lose our troops, then we will choose the former.”
“The threat emanating from these safe havens is not new. We have known about it for years and repeatedly pressed the Pakistanis to act,” he said, adding: “I have seen personally how Pakistan’s Government has stalled and dissembled on this issue.”
“It is unacceptable for the United States to spend its blood and treasure so that Afghanistan does not once again become a breeding ground for militant extremists while Pakistan protects terrorists who cross the border to attack us,” Levin said, telling Islamabad that it “cannot evade its responsibility for its role in allowing and supporting these attacks”.
Levin went on to say that there was also “evidence that the Pakistanis have interfered with attempts to achieve political reconciliation in Afghanistan, obstructing peace talks unless they can exercise control over the Taliban groups involved and the substance of the talks”.
The Democratic Senator from Michigan faulted the US authorities for still not having added the Haqqani network to the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
“Keeping the Haqqanis off that list has not encouraged the group to join a reconciliation process, nor has it prevented the Pakistani ISI from continuing its support for the Haqqanis,” Levin said.
Meanwhile, following Secretary Clinton’s public admission in Islamabad on Friday that the US had held a meeting with the Haqqani network last summer, a senior State Department official said the meeting was held at the request of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI.
Briefing reporters travelling with Clinton, the official said “it was one meeting in the summer, the ISI asked us to have it, the Afghans also knew about it”.
“We have reached out to the Taliban, we have reached out to the Haqqani network to test their willingness and their sincerity and we are now working among us — Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States – to try to put together a process that would sequence us toward an actual negotiation,” Clinton had told reporters in Islamabad at the end of her meetings.
Levin, who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, is also making the case that Washington should be ready to abandon its partnership with Islamabad if the latter does not change its ways in dealing with the likes of Haqqani network.
“If Pakistan will not take on the threat posed by the Haqqanis and other extremist groups based in Pakistan who attack our forces in Afghanistan, then we should be prepared to take steps to defend our troops,” Levin said at the Council on Foreign Relations here.
“We have the right to target not only forces and artillery attacking our forces in Afghanistan from across the border in Pakistan, but to target the people controlling those forces as well,” he said. And quoting Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, he added: “The message (the Pakistanis) need to know is: We’re going to do everything we can to defend our forces.”
Levin’s pointed remarks came even as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was winding up her visit to Islamabad on Friday after issuing stern warnings to the Pakistani establishment.
He took the stand that the Pakistani safe havens were the greatest threat to security in Afghanistan. Slamming Islamabad for offering the same excuses over its failure to eliminate these safe havens, he commented: “At the least, Pakistan needs to condemn the attacks of the Haqqanis in Afghanistan, and Pakistani officials need to end their denials of plain truth.”
Remarking that Islamabad’s failure to act would be a “show-stopper” for normal relations with Washington, Levin said: “Our response should be that if the only option Pakistan presents us is a choice between losing an ally and continuing to lose our troops, then we will choose the former.”
“The threat emanating from these safe havens is not new. We have known about it for years and repeatedly pressed the Pakistanis to act,” he said, adding: “I have seen personally how Pakistan’s Government has stalled and dissembled on this issue.”
“It is unacceptable for the United States to spend its blood and treasure so that Afghanistan does not once again become a breeding ground for militant extremists while Pakistan protects terrorists who cross the border to attack us,” Levin said, telling Islamabad that it “cannot evade its responsibility for its role in allowing and supporting these attacks”.
Levin went on to say that there was also “evidence that the Pakistanis have interfered with attempts to achieve political reconciliation in Afghanistan, obstructing peace talks unless they can exercise control over the Taliban groups involved and the substance of the talks”.
The Democratic Senator from Michigan faulted the US authorities for still not having added the Haqqani network to the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
“Keeping the Haqqanis off that list has not encouraged the group to join a reconciliation process, nor has it prevented the Pakistani ISI from continuing its support for the Haqqanis,” Levin said.
Meanwhile, following Secretary Clinton’s public admission in Islamabad on Friday that the US had held a meeting with the Haqqani network last summer, a senior State Department official said the meeting was held at the request of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI.
Briefing reporters travelling with Clinton, the official said “it was one meeting in the summer, the ISI asked us to have it, the Afghans also knew about it”.
“We have reached out to the Taliban, we have reached out to the Haqqani network to test their willingness and their sincerity and we are now working among us — Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States – to try to put together a process that would sequence us toward an actual negotiation,” Clinton had told reporters in Islamabad at the end of her meetings.
