Obama’s ‘tough love message’ to Pak on fight against Haqqani network, LeT
By ANIFriday, October 22, 2010
WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama has reportedly asked his administration to “deliver a tough love message” to Pakistan over its reluctance to act against the Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-Taiba havens bordering Afghanistan.
According to Foreign Policy, an online magazine for global issues, this was visible when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dropped in unannounced at a meeting between Special Representative Richard Holbrooke and Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
She delivered “the message that Washington’s patience is wearing thin with Pakistan’s ongoing reluctance to take a more aggressive stance against militant groups operating from Pakistan over the Afghan border”, the magazine said.
A similar message was delivered to General Kayani in another high-level meeting at the Pentagon, which was hosted by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen.
The magazine also highlighted that the Obama administration’s effort to convince Pakistan to more aggressively combat groups like the Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-Taiba will now consist of both carrots and sticks.
“The Obama side is calculating that Pakistan’s military can deliver on subjects important to the US, but doesn’t want to, while the civilian leadership in Pakistan wants to, but isn’t able to,” the magazine quoted a high-level official, as saying. (ANI)
