Safe Pakistan, Afghanistan is US aim: Obama

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

By Anwar Iqbal
Saturday, 10 Apr, 2010

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama said on Friday that creating a safe and secure environment in Pakistan and Afghanistan remained the “singular focus” of his administration.

In a wide-ranging interview to ABC television channel, he also said that dismantling and destroying militants’ bases in the Pak-Afghan region was the central concern of the US administration and the main objective of its Afghan strategy.

“We’ve got to work both in Afghanistan and in Pakistan to create an environment in which these extremist organisations are further and further isolated,” said Obama while explaining how he plans to defeat the extremists.

Obama also extended a hand of friendship to embittered Afghan President Hamid Karzai, describing him as “a critical partner” in the fight against Al Qaeda.

But, he added that President Karzai still faced a “challenge” in dealing with domestic politics.

His comments follow recent critical statements by Karzai, who angered the US by accusing foreigners of interfering in Afghanistan’s affairs.

Soon after Obama’s interview, his national security adviser General Jim Jones told journalists that the United States expected the Afghan leader to meet the US president in Washington next month as planned.

Earlier, Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in Chicago that Karzai might not always do or say what the Nato allies would like. But, he said Nato “in general” had “very good cooperation” from Karzai and his government.

Obama endorsed his views. “I think real progress has been made, part of President Karzai’s challenge is, he’s got to bring his country along into a 21st century, in which it is functioning and effective,” he said.

Obama explained that Washington had a presence in the Pak-Afghan region because extremists hiding there killed 3,000 Americans on Sept 11, 2001.

“And those people are still out there, still plotting to kill Americans,” he warned. “So the reason the American troops are there, first and foremost, is because we’ve got to make sure that something like that doesn’t happen again.”

To achieve this objective, he added, “We are going after Al Qaeda to dismantle and destroy them. I said at the beginning of my Afghan strategy, that was our central concern. And that remains our singular focus.”

But defeating these terrorists “means having a stable Afghanistan that has a trained security force, that is not allowing the Taliban to take over huge sections of the country, and potentially allow another platform for Al Qaeda to operate,” he added.

He said he had witnessed a “steady, demonstrable success” in this struggle over the last several months.

“Now, President Karzai, I think, is going to be a critical partner in this effort, because if we are just succeeding on the military side, but not succeeding on the civilian side, then you’re going to continue to have instability in the region,” he added.

And Gen Jim Jones said the president had sent a letter to Mr Karzai “basically recommitting ourselves to the success of our operation and our partnership and (President Obama) looks forward to greeting him in Washington to continue that progress”.

Gen Jones underlined the need for strategic partnership in order to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan, Pakistan and the region. He also said that he saw encouraging signs in Afghanistan and Pakistan for containing militancy in the region.