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| US 'comfortable' with level of security at Pak nuclear sites |
| Lalit K Jha/PTI / Washington Aug 14, 2009, 11:05 IST |
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Amidst reports that Taliban and Al-Qaeda terrorists have attacked nuclear sites in Pakistan, the US today said it was "comfortable" with the level of security provided by the Pakistani forces at the facilities.
"We are comfortable with the level of security of the Pakistani forces (at the nuclear sites)," Defence Secretary Robert Gates said when asked about the safety and security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. His comments assume significance in the wake of a UK-based expert claiming that Taliban and Al-Qaeda terrorists have attacked nuclear sites in Pakistan at least thrice in the last two years.
However, Pakistan rubbished the reports and said there was "absolutely no chance" that the country's nuclear weapons could fall into terrorist hands.
The Defence Secretary said there seems to a broad political support for the Pakistan military operations against Taliban and other militants in the western parts of the country.
The political support is "more than any one would have expected six months ago", Gates said.
"I think that this change of attitudes and the success of the Pakistani forces clearly serve our interest, as well as it serves the interests of the Pakistanis," he said.
Commenting on a recent opinion poll which said 64 per cent of Pakistani see US as their enemy, Gates said America needs to rebuild trust with Pakistan.
"First of all, one of the reasons that the Pakistanis have concerns about us is that we walked away from them twice. We walked away from them after the Soviets left Afghanistan, and we walked away from them through the 1990s, because of the Pressler amendment.So our military-to-military relations were significantly interrupted," Gates told a Pentagon briefing.
"I think that the Pakistanis probably and with some legitimacy questions — how long are we prepared to stay there? Is it the only reason we are interested in working with the Pakistanis because of the war in Afghanistan? Or do we value Pakistan as a partner and an ally independent of the war in Afghanistan? The latter is the case," Gates observed.
He said the polls are perhaps more meaningful in the context that the Pakistani people have extended support to their government in terms of the activities in western Pakistan, in the FATA and in the NWFP.
The poll is disturbing to defence leaders, but not surprising, he said and hoped that the new Administration will be able to demonstrate to the Pakistanis that the US is a reliable ally that they can count on for the long term.
"So I think it's going to take us some time to rebuild confidence of the Pakistani people that we are a long-term friend and ally of Pakistan," he said.
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