Rocky Afghanistan not in Pak favour: US

WASHINGTON: The US State Department on Thursday acknowledged Pakistan’s efforts in dismantling terrorist networks but also, in the same breath, mentioned that such progress would be undermined if Afghanistan remained rocky and it would not be in favour of Pakistan.

“Instability in Afghanistan is not in Pakistan’s interest and will undermine the significant progress that the Pakistan military has made in shutting down terrorist safe havens,” Elizabeth Trudeau, Director Press Office, said during a daily briefing here.

The press director also said that the United States was in constant contact with Pakistan on reports about Taliban and ISIS (Daesh) joining hands. She added that the contact remained at the highest civilian as well as military level. “In terms of our conversations, we have been very clear with the highest level of the Pakistani government that Pakistan must target all groups,” she said, noting, “General Raheel Sharif actually spoke to this very recently.”

Answering a question, she said that peace in Pakistan and stability in the broader region “requires that military threats be addressed in a comprehensive way.”“Pakistan has always had a strong position that it wishes stability in Pakistan, while the US has been asking it repeatedly not to discriminate against any terrorist group.

An action against the notorious Haqqani Network has been a core issue lately, compelling the administration officials to withhold substantial amount of the Coalition Support Fund,” the press director said.