KABUL — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday delivered the sharpest U.S. warning yet to Pakistani leaders: Crack down on the Afghan insurgents based on your soil or pay “a very big price.”
“We’re looking to the Pakistanis to lead on this because there’s no place to go any longer. The terrorists are on both sides” of the Afghan-Pakistani border, she said.
Clinton, making an unannounced stop in Afghanistan before traveling to Pakistan late Thursday, said she and a high-powered U.S. delegation that included CIA Director David Petraeus would press leaders in Islamabad to directly tackle the Haqqani network and other militant groups operating from Pakistan’s tribal areas.
That’s likely to set the stage for an extremely contentious visit. Earlier this week, Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, warned that the United States should “think 10 times” before launching a military operation on the soil of a nuclear-armed country.
While Clinton didn’t specify what action the U.S. might take, her remarks in a joint news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the presidential palace in Kabul underscored Washington’s growing frustration with Pakistan as it grasps for a way to end the decade-long Afghan war and bring home the 90,000 U.S. troops remaining here.
After a summer of devastating terrorist attacks in Kabul that U.S. officials blamed on militants based inside Pakistan — including the assassination of the Afghan government’s chief peace negotiator and a day-long assault on the U.S. Embassy — the Obama administration has stepped up demands for greater Pakistani cooperation in fighting the Taliban and the Haqqani group, which U.S. officials allege is supported by Pakistan’s military-run spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate.
The U.S. warnings have galled officials in Pakistan, which is reeling from its own domestic insurgency and a collapsing economy and is reluctant to create additional enemies. In Pakistan, U.S. demands that it “do more” to fight extremists are portrayed as an attempt to shift the blame for American failures in Afghanistan.
Clinton reiterated calls for greater unity among the U.S., Afghanistan and Pakistan. She described the U.S. strategy as “fight, talk, build” — fighting the militants who reject peace negotiations, engaging in talks with those willing to put down their weapons, and continuing to build an Afghan government.
