U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday risked fuelling anger in Pakistan after he said America would not hesitate to launch another unilateral military operation on Pakistani soil to flush out other al-Qaeda figures if it had information that they were hiding there.
He said while his government respected Pakistan's sovereignty its first priority was to “secure the United States'' and this had been “made clear to the Pakistanis''.
His remarks came barely days after the Pakistan's National Assembly adopted a strongly-worded resolution warning against any action similar to the one that killed Osama bin Laden when American commandos raided a compound in Abbottabad earlier this month without informing the Pakistani government.
Asked by the BBC what he would do if another “high-value'' target such as the Taliban leader Mullah Omar was found in Pakistan, President Obama said: “I've already made clear to the Pakistanis that our job is to secure the United States. We are very respectful of the sovereignty of Pakistan. But we cannot allow someone who is actively planning to kill our people or our allies' people. We can't allow those kind of active plans to come to fruition without us taking some action and our hope is and our expectation is that we can achieve this in a way that is fully respectful of Pakistani sovereignty. But I've made no secret and I said this when I was running for the presidency that if I had a clear shot of bin Laden we would take him.”
Wake-up call
In another remark that is not likely to go down well in Islamabad, Mr. Obama suggested that Pakistan had not been cooperating fully in fighting terror.
He described the killing of bin Laden as a “wake-up call where we start seeing a more effective co-operative relationship” with Pakistan.
On Afghanistan, Mr. Obama said the conflict could not be solved militarily and ultimately this meant “talking to the Taliban''.
“Ultimately it means talking to the Taliban,” adding that the “Taliban would have to cut all ties to al-Qaeda, renounce violence and they would have to respect the Afghan constitution”.
The American President's remarks were welcomed by a presidential spokesman in Afghanistan who said they reflected Kabul's long-held view.
