Disputed ties: Levin blasts Pakistan over Haqqani links

US senator says his country would be justified in responding to ‘cross-border attacks’.

WASHINGTON:

Hours after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Pakistan to squeeze the Haqqani network, head of the Senate Armed Services Committee Senator Carl Levin said that if Pakistan does not take on the threat posed by the Haqqanis, the US should be prepared to take steps to defend its troops.

Addressing an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations on the subject of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Levin said that “it is consistent with established principles of international law for the United States to defend itself against cross-border attacks by insurgents based in Pakistan, and to respond to those attacks.”

In his prepared remarks, Levin said that the ISI maintained ties with the Haqqani network and provided support to the group. Referring to his trip to Pakistan in August this year, Levin said he had pressed why Pakistani officials had not publicly condemned cross-border attacks by the Haqqanis and the Afghan Taliban, only to receive unsatisfactory answers.

Levin also urged the US to place the Haqqani network on the Foreign Terrorists Organisation list, which, he said, would send a warning message to Pakistan.

Levin also accused Pakistan of interfering in the political reconciliation process in Afghanistan so that Pakistan could exercise control over the groups involved in the process and the substance of talks.

While the senator said that Pakistan and the US needed to remain engaged, he referred to a recent statement by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar that the US would lose an ally if they continued with allegations of Pakistan’s support for the Haqqani network: “Our response should be that if the only option Pakistan presents us is a choice between losing an ally and continuing to lose our troops, then we will choose the former.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2011.