US President Barack Obama has said that it was necessary to have a government in Pakistan that is working “effectively” with the US to dismantle terrorist outfits operating there and trying to destabilise Afghanistan.
“We have to make sure that we’ve got a Pakistani government that is working effectively with us to dismantle these networks,” Mr Obama said as he reiterated his goal to dismantle and destroy Al Qaeda and its affiliates.
“The reason we’re there in the first place is because 3,000 Americans were killed from an attack launched in that region. We are not going to have that repeated,” he said.
In order to achieve that, we have to make sure that we have a stable Afghan government, and we also have to make sure that we’ve got a Pakistani government that is working effectively with us to dismantle these networks, Mr Obama said in response to a question at a White House news briefing along with the visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. A day earlier, Mr Obama had said that the United States would not tolerate terrorist safe haven.
“Our nation is at war. We face a very tough fight in Afghanistan. But Americans don’t flinch in the face of difficult truths or difficult tasks. We persist and we persevere. We will not tolerate a safe haven for terrorists who want to destroy Afghan society from within and launch attacks against innocent men, women and children in our country and around the world,” Mr Obama said.
Emerging from the Oval office, soon after his monthly situation room meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan with his national security aide, Mr Obama said the goal is to break the momentum of the Taliban. —PTI