US sees Pakistan as threat to Afghan progress
5 May 2012 2:28 PM GMT
Describing the terror safe havens in Pakistan as the greatest threat to progress in Afghanistan, key US senators have said that these sanctuaries provide significant opportunities for Taliban and the Haqqani network ‘to plan, withdraw, regroup and attack’ the targets across the border.
‘The greatest threats that remain are the continued existence of havens in Pakistan from which the insurgents are continuing launching these attacks across the border,’ Carl Levin, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said.
‘The Haqqani Network remains just loose and without any kind of Pakistani effort to control them. And that’s one of the major threats to the continued progress in Afghanistan,’ he told reporters. Levin said ‘we’re seeing continuing progress in Afghanistan’ and he was optimistic about the dates that ‘we have set for reducing our surge forces by the end of September and by moving most of our combat forces by 2014.’
‘Plus the signing of a long-term relationship by the two Presidents (Barack Obama and Hamid Karzai) all contribute to a positive momentum in Afghanistan in terms of defeating the Taliban and uniting a country that can return to a much more normal existence,’ the senator said. Senator Jack Reed too expressed concern over the continued existence of safe havens in Pakistan.
‘They [the sanctuaries in Pakistan] provide significant opportunities for the Taliban (and) for other networks like the Haqqanis to plan, to withdraw, regroup and attack again,’ he said. ‘One thing specifically we suggested was the reorganisation of border police by placing the manoeuvre elements under the control of the army either by directly transferring them to the Ministry of Defence or by putting onto the operation control of the Ministry of Defence,’ Reed said.
‘The greatest threats that remain are the continued existence of havens in Pakistan from which the insurgents are continuing launching these attacks across the border,’ Carl Levin, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said.
‘The Haqqani Network remains just loose and without any kind of Pakistani effort to control them. And that’s one of the major threats to the continued progress in Afghanistan,’ he told reporters. Levin said ‘we’re seeing continuing progress in Afghanistan’ and he was optimistic about the dates that ‘we have set for reducing our surge forces by the end of September and by moving most of our combat forces by 2014.’
‘Plus the signing of a long-term relationship by the two Presidents (Barack Obama and Hamid Karzai) all contribute to a positive momentum in Afghanistan in terms of defeating the Taliban and uniting a country that can return to a much more normal existence,’ the senator said. Senator Jack Reed too expressed concern over the continued existence of safe havens in Pakistan.
‘They [the sanctuaries in Pakistan] provide significant opportunities for the Taliban (and) for other networks like the Haqqanis to plan, to withdraw, regroup and attack again,’ he said. ‘One thing specifically we suggested was the reorganisation of border police by placing the manoeuvre elements under the control of the army either by directly transferring them to the Ministry of Defence or by putting onto the operation control of the Ministry of Defence,’ Reed said.
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