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| US anti-terror policy to focus on Pak: Clinton |
| BS Reporter / New Delhi /Washington Jan 15, 2009, 00:21 IST |
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Pakistan and Afghanistan will be at the centre of the US radar in its “global counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism” efforts. Chary of using “war on terror”, a much-abused expression during the outgoing Bush administration, to describe the violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan, US Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton, at her Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, said elements of US power — diplomacy, development and defence — would be used “to work with those in Afghanistan and Pakistan who want to root out the Al-Qaeda, Taliban and other violent extremists.”
She said no effort would be spared to tackle what US President-elect Obama has called “the central front (Afghanistan and Pakistan) in the fight against terrorism”.
The Afghanistan conflict needs a comprehensive solution that includes “Pakistan, India and Iran, and the larger region,” she added.
American concerns over the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal also came to the fore at the hearing. To a question, Clinton said: “Pakistan has a particular complexity because of its nuclear weapons capacity. But the democratically-elected government has been saying a lot of the right things with respect to the threat posed by the extremists and terrorists, particularly along the border and in the FATA region.”
Clinton outlined the Obama administration’s foreign policy objectives to be the danger posed by the weapons of mass destruction (WMD), especially in the hands of terrorists. This is a clear indication of the American concerns that terrorist groups in Pakistan can lay their hands on the nuclear weapons.
In light of the threat posed by Pakistan’s unstable political structure and terrorists, especially in the tribal regions along the Afghan-Pakistan border, the US will also implement the decision to increase by three-fold the non-military aid to Pakistan — $1.5 billion a year over the course of a number of years — to “support the Pakistani people and give tools to the government to try to start producing results”, she added.
On appointing special envoys for the region, Clinton said decisions had not been taken as yet. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has already rejected the idea of a special envoy for India and Pakistan. For now, Richard Holbrooke, the former US envoy to the UN, is tipped to be the special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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