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Political News Updates: U.S. National Security Adviser, James Jones, objected to putting Pakistan on a notice to end the Taliban while trip to Islamabad recently.
“My trip was simply to underscore, at the request of the (US) President, that we take this particular relationship extremely seriously,” said retired Marine general who visited Islamabad last week.
The U.S. media reported Wednesday that Mr Jones and CIA Director Leon Panetta, who visited Islamabad with Mr Jones, said the Pakistani leaders that they only have a week to show real progress “in a Taliban attack on Pakistan.
The two met President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and army head General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani during the visit following a failed coup efforts in Times Square in New York by a Pakistani-American.
The purpose of the visit was to assure the Pakistanis that “we’re very serious when we say we will make long-term commitments to Pakistan, to help the economy, to help the revitalisation of the infrastructure, to bring investment from not only our business community but international investment, to help the instruments of governance wherever possible”, Mr Jones told journalists at the Washington Foreign Press Centre.
“But we wanted to also impress upon our friends that it is essential that terrorism be defeated and that wherever there are the presence of terrorists of the perception of presence of terrorists that it’s in the interest of Pakistan to not only repudiate the existence of those kinds of organisations but also at the appropriate time to rid Pakistan of that presence,” said the US National Security Adviser.
“We offer friendship and assistance, cooperation in every way possible, in order to do that and in order to help bring a better future to Pakistan. So I want to state very clearly that this was a meeting among friends, one that we have regularly,” he said in response to a question.
He said the US had committed itself to a long-term strategy with regard to that part of the world, including Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, to try to bring a better life to the people of the region, to try to end terrorism in all shapes and forms directed against all different peoples.
“We have applauded the Pakistani efforts to date with regard to their renewed efforts that began last year, their success in the Swat valley, their success in South Waziristan. We have rejoiced in the trust and confidence that’s been built between our two militarises, the increased sharing of information and intelligence, the cooperation that we’ve received on law-enforcement issues, the very prompt response we got as a result of the Times Square incident,” he added.
