WASHINGTON, June 19: Pakistan enjoys a prominent place in the US policy for Asia but it also is a place where America’s worst nightmare of a nexus of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction could materialise, warns US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Her policy speech on Asia, delivered at Washington’s Heritage Foundation on Thursday, covered a wide-range of subjects, from China, India and Afghanistan to Iran and North Korea’s alleged attempts to acquire nuclear weapons.
But the speech itself had only two brief references to Pakistan. She first mentioned Pakistan while talking about Washington’s efforts to end violence in Kashmir which she said was pulling India and Pakistan toward conflict.
Pakistan was named again while itemising America’s “strategic accomplishments in Asia which, she said, included partnerships with a newly democratic Afghanistan, a democratic Pakistan, and “an historic transformation of our relationship with the rising democratic power, India.”
PAKISTAN IN FOCUS: But Pakistan received Ms Rice’s full attention during the Q & A session when a think-tank expert asked her to explain if US military objectives in Afghanistan were “remotely compatible” with the commitments that the Pakistani democratic government has made internally.
Secretary Rice reminded the audience that the United States was a strong advocate for a democratic election in Pakistan, and is now working with the new civilian government, which she described as a step forward for Pakistan.
She then turned to the thorny issue of Islamabad’s efforts to seek a negotiated settlement with tribal militants in Fata.
“We’ve made very clear to the Pakistani government that the extremists who operate in the Federal Administered Tribal Areas are a threat to them and to us and to everybody on the globe, and that we have a common goal and a common objective in making sure that they cannot operate,” she said.
Ms Rice also referred to a US intelligence report that those who killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto came from militant groups based in the tribal areas.
Ms Bhutto’s murder by these extremists, she said, gave the United States and Pakistan another “common objective” for seeking to root out terrorism from Fata.
Ms Rice acknowledged that as a sovereign state Pakistan had the right to handle this situation as it wanted to but finally it’s Islamabad’s responsibility to end terrorism in Fata.
“It is obviously the sovereign state of Pakistan’s right to handle this situation,” she said. “But we’ve made very clear that we are concerned that any deal with the region would be very clear that terrorists cannot be harbored, terrorists cannot operate with impunity.”
A deal that enables terrorists to do so will ultimately come back “first and foremost, to haunt Pakistan” and then to “haunt the rest of us too, but first and foremost, it’s going to haunt Pakistan,” she warned.
The United States, she said, was trying to develop with the government of Pakistan a positive agenda for the tribal region, which has remained ungoverned for many years.
“And the … agenda is to work in this very poor region with aid projects and with ways to give the people a better choice,” she said.
Ms Rice noted that even in some of the toughest areas, when people were given the right to vote, they did not vote for extremist parties.
“So there’s something there to work with, but … as is always the case in counter insurgency, you have to be willing to make sure that the bad forces are destroyed and you have to be willing to give the population another chance or a chance to live a better life.”
Ms Rice explained that this has been the nature of America’s dialogue with the new Pakistani government which, she acknowledged, needed to settle in.
“We’re prepared to help, and we’re prepared to help with a better life for the population, and we’re prepared to help in helping them to get the means to deal with this area where terrorists who are a threat to them as well as us, are lodged,” she said.
PREVENTION OF N-ATTACK: Pakistan came up for discussion again when another think-tank expert wanted to know if the US had taken adequate steps to prevent a nuclear attack.
Ms Rice assured the audience that the US administration had made adequate arrangements to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
“We do it because it’s important, but we also do it because anybody’s worst nightmare is that nexus of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction,” she said.
Ms Rice, however, warned that there’s no room for complacence because staying safe “requires extraordinary vigilance, it requires extraordinary defensive measures, but it also requires meeting them (the terrorists) on their own turf.”
That’s why, she said, the US was working with allies like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and others to root out terrorism at its core.
Ms Rice noted that there’s no worse nightmare than the bringing together of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction and “it is one reason that I think we’ve worked so hard on the nonproliferation piece.”
The US, she noted, has had success in Libya, which opted out of its plan to acquire WMDs, and in dismantling the Khan network of proliferators.
“The A.Q. Khan network, about which we’re continuing to learn more, is at least out of the business,” she said.
“There isn’t any higher priority than proliferation.
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