Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Yahoo.com
May 30, 2008 ON BOARD A US MILITARY PLANE (AFP) -- US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that Pakistan's new civilian government needed more time to effectively tackle extremists on its border with Afghanistan.
Speaking en route to Singapore to attend a regional security conference, Gates said the coalition government in Islamabad was still trying to feel its way.
It launched talks with local Taliban militants soon after winning elections in February, amid concern that US-backed Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's military approach was spawning more violence.
"Clearly Pakistan is in a transition, the civilian government is still relatively new, and I think until they get their feet on the ground and get a full appreciation of the nature of the threats that they face and their approach to it, I think we just have to give them a little time," Gates told reporters.
Asked if it was just a question of transition, he responded: "I certainly hope so."
On Thursday, the head of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, US General Dan McNeill, said that a recent increase in attacks in the east of the country was because there was no pressure on the extremists from Pakistan's side of the border.
McNeill also raised a lack of dialogue between NATO forces, Afghanistan's leaders and Islamabad over the border issue, but Gates said that "my impression is that communications between Pakistani military forces along the border and our own is still good."
May 30, 2008 ON BOARD A US MILITARY PLANE (AFP) -- US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that Pakistan's new civilian government needed more time to effectively tackle extremists on its border with Afghanistan.
Speaking en route to Singapore to attend a regional security conference, Gates said the coalition government in Islamabad was still trying to feel its way.
It launched talks with local Taliban militants soon after winning elections in February, amid concern that US-backed Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's military approach was spawning more violence.
"Clearly Pakistan is in a transition, the civilian government is still relatively new, and I think until they get their feet on the ground and get a full appreciation of the nature of the threats that they face and their approach to it, I think we just have to give them a little time," Gates told reporters.
Asked if it was just a question of transition, he responded: "I certainly hope so."
On Thursday, the head of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, US General Dan McNeill, said that a recent increase in attacks in the east of the country was because there was no pressure on the extremists from Pakistan's side of the border.
McNeill also raised a lack of dialogue between NATO forces, Afghanistan's leaders and Islamabad over the border issue, but Gates said that "my impression is that communications between Pakistani military forces along the border and our own is still good."