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Pak-Taliban treaty not an encouraging trend, says US

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Agencies

Posted: Feb 19, 2009 at 1021 hrs IST

Washington Troubled over Pakistan government's concession to the Taliban in the Swat Valley, a top Obama administration official has said the US would not like "bad guys" to get hold of any territory in the country.

"We are troubled and confused in the sense about what happened in Swat, because it is not an encouraging trend," Richard Holbrooke, the Special US Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan told the PBS news channel in an interview.

Having just returned from South Asia wherein he met leaders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and India, Holbrooke said the Pakistanis are shocked at the fall of the picturesque Swat, which is after all a resort they all went to for vacations.

"So we have a situation in the area which is very serious. This is what we inherited," he said.

This is for the first time that an administration official has spoken clearly against the peace deal between the Taliban and the Pakistan government.

"Previous ceasefires have broken down and we do not want to see territory ceded to the bad guys. The people who took over Swat are very bad people," Holbrooke said.

The issue, he said, will be pursued during the next week's visit of a Pakistani delegation headed by Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

Secretary of state Hillary Clinton had earlier said that Islamabad's efforts still needed to be "thoroughly understood" before making any comments.

So far the State Department has restrained itself from making any comment on the peace deal.

Holbrooke said this development would be pursued at a very high level when a Pakistani delegation headed by its Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, visits Washington next week to hold discussions with the officials and participate in the Afghan review process.

"The military would be represented in the Foreign Minister Qureshi's delegation, and you can be sure that this issue would be pursued at very high levels in our dialogue next week," he said.

Asked if the Pakistani military and the ISI is willing to make commitments in the publicly announced goal of Pakistan's President to get rid of the Taliban, Holbrooke said it is too early to arrive at any conclusion.

"This is a very important question, which we are exploring in depth now. I have rarely seen an issue in Washington, which is so hotly disputed internally by experts and intelligence officials, is the one you raised," he said.

"Let me say for the purpose of this interview that we are engaged in very intense discussion with the military leadership of Pakistan and the ISI about this particular issue," he said.

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Pak Vs Taliban by Vaid S C K on 19 Feb 2009

During long period of dictatorship in Pak, army and ISI in Pak has been thoroughly talibanised. Unless talibanised elements are flushed from these two important institutions, there is no possible respite. So called present democratic government can not do any reform as they are at the mercy of army and ISI. Best option for USA is to tackle direct both the dragons. No further military or economic aid be allowed to Pak untill some vsible improvement is noticed.

pak already in danger, make world safe now ! by virender yadav on 19 Feb 2009

The agreement between the pak govt and talibans is not by choice but by compulsion of pak govt. Now pak govt will keep loosing ground against them every passing day, the pak army and ISI has started feeling helpless though they are showing brave front. India and rest of the world must now start planning for the D Day( ie military operation) against pak as that day is not far now. Pak govt has worked very hard for last 30-35 years in training talibans and terrorists to operate in India and elsewhere but they themselves landed into the problem. NOW THE WORLD SHOULD DEPRIVE PAK OF THE NUCLEAR WEAPONS TO MAKE THE WORLD SAFE. NOW NOBODY CAN SAVE PAK.

Pak-Taliban treaty gets American financial asssitance by rakesh m on 19 Feb 2009

But America, please increase your financial support to terrorist Pak, who are able to fool you by pretending that they are your partner to fight terrorism! It proves again and again that Americans are the number one fools in the world who cannot understand that the Pakis are taking financial assistance from them in the name of fighting terrorism and using the same money to spread terrorism across the world! Knowing all these, why Americans still continue to give financial assistance to this terrorist country? Should we understand that Americans support terrorist?

pay more ransom by ajay on 19 Feb 2009

Dear uncle sam, pls pay some more ransom then pakistan might consider not doing so for some more time.

Mother of all evils by subburaj on 19 Feb 2009

US is the mother of all evils in this universe. They created Taliban, Saddam, Zia-Ul-Haq etc., If Taliban does not listen to their tunes then they are bad guys. If they are ready to do what US says then they are good guys. US is spoiling this world for their own gains which was earlier done by UK. If Taliban is ready to do all terrorist activities as per US plank then they are good and the world has to accept them. RIDICULOUS ATTITUDE. Once again I say, American is the mother or all evils in this world. I fail to understand if might is right then we should have our own strategy to tackle this menace.

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