Do more to fight terror, says Mattis
islamabad — Defence Secretary Jim Mattis met top Pakistani leaders on Monday to seek common ground on the counterterrorism fight, amid Trump administration calls for Islamabad to more aggressively go after the insurgents moving back and forth across the border with Afghanistan.
In brief comments before their meeting began, Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said his country is committed to the war on terror and shares the same common objectives as the United States.
“Engagement is there,” he said, adding that they “need to move forward with (the) issues at hand.” Mattis did not speak while media were present.
Earlier, Mattis told reporters travelling with him that he wants to work with Pakistan to address the problems, adding that the US is committed to a pragmatic relationship that expands cooperation
We have heard from Pakistan leaders that they do not support terrorism. so I expect to see that sort of action reflected in their policies,” Jim Mattis, US defence secretary
while also “reinforcing President Trump’s call for action against terrorist safe havens.”
“We have heard from Pakistan leaders that they do not support terrorism. So I expect to see that sort of action reflected in their policies,” Mattis said before his trip to Islamabad.
Mattis met Abbasi and army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, as well as a number of senior Pakistani leaders and military officials and US Ambassador David Hale.
Asked if he was going to press the Pakistani leaders to take more action against the insurgents, Mattis
Pakistan is committed to the war on terror and shares the same objectives as the us. engagement is there, we need to move forward. Khaqan Abbasi, Pakistan PM
said: “That’s not the way I deal with issues. I believe that we work hard on finding the common ground and then we work together.”
Mattis’ optimism, however, comes despite persistent US assertions that Islamabad is still not doing enough to battle the Taleban and allied Haqqani network insurgents within its borders.
Since the start of the war in Afghanistan, militants in Pakistan have crossed the mountainous and ill-defined border to wage attacks against US, Afghan and allied forces. They then would return to their safe havens in Pakistan, where they have had a long-standing relationship with the ISI, Islamabad’s intelligence agency.
In a blunt assessment early last week, Gen. John Nicholson, the top US commander in Afghanistan, said there have been no changes in Pakistan’s support for militant networks. He said Pakistani leaders went to Kabul and met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
“They identified certain steps that they were going to take. We’ve not yet seen those steps play out,” Nicholson told reporters in a recent briefing.
The US, he said, has been very direct about what it expects Pakistan to do in the fight against the Taleban. “We’re hoping to see those changes,” he said. “We’re hoping to work together with the Pakistanis going forward to eliminate terrorists who are crossing” between Pakistan and Afghanistan. —