In light of the violence during Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections last week and the assassination of a top Afghan official, the US has said Pakistan will be “held to account” for not ceasing to provide safe haven to terrorists, a priority for the Trump administration.

AFPUS secretary of state Mike Pompeo speaks to members of the media in the briefing room of the state department on Tuesday.

“Our expectation is that Pakistan will not provide safe harbour to terrorists on their western border,” secretary of state Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday. “We couldn’t have made that message any more clear – and that Pakistan will be held to account if they don’t achieve that, if they’re not sincere in that effort.”

Pompeo was replying to a question from journalists about reports suggesting Pakistan was behind the assassination of Kandahar police chief Gen Abdul Raziq last week. Afghan officials have said the assassin made a call to someone in Pakistan just minutes before he opened fire. Many more people died during the elections.

In the run up to the polls, the US had said Pakistan had a chance to demonstrate it had turned the corner on terrorism, and in the spirit of a reset in bilateral ties, which had been in free fall for years, it could use its clout with the Taliban to ensure the peaceful conduct of elections.

Pompeo reminded Pakistan of the Trump administration’s unchanged South Asia policy, and the expectations and consequences for failing to meet them. He said he had personally delivered the same message to the Pakistani leadership during visit in September. “We don’t believe we can get to the place that everyone wants, right,” he said, reminding Islamabad of the goal — “a reconciliation in Afghanistan”. To achieve that, “you can’t have a safe harbour for Taliban, for Haqqani, and for others inside of Pakistan”. Pompeo reiterated that Islamabad knows the Trump administration’s views and reminded Pakistan it has “already made significant efforts to hold them accountable, and we hope that they’ll achieve the goal that we’ve set out for them”. The message was a clear reminder to Islamabad of the $2 billion in security aid the Trump administration suspended at the start of the year over the lack of decisive action by Pakistan against terrorists operating from its soil.

HT Correspondent letters@hindustantimes.com n

Courtesy: Hindustan Times: 25th Oct 2018