Washington/Islamabad, Feb 2 (IANS) The US has asked Pakistan to snap the ties between the ISI and the Taliban and act against terrorist safe havens after a NATO report revealed that the Pakistan’s spy agency was secretly helping the insurgents to recover lost ground in Afghanistan.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “raised many of these issues when she was in Pakistan last fall”, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters Wednesday when asked about a leaked NATO report published in the British media about the ISI’s “manipulation” of Afghan Taliban’s senior leadership.
“So from that perspective, obviously this is not new – our concerns about safe havens, our concerns about whether together we are doing enough to go after these groups, our interest in cooperating with the Pakistanis to do more,” Nuland said.
However, Nuland sought to play down the import of the report saying, “The context, as described by NATO, is that this is basically a summary of the views of those Taliban that we have in detention. So it’s a summary of what they think, what they believe to be true.”
The classified report should not have come out into the open, she said, suggesting, “It was not designed for any purpose other than to help those in the field understand what Taliban detainees were saying.”
“So, it was in no way designed to impact on our ongoing efforts to get back on track with Pakistan, which continue,” the State Department spokesperson said.
The NATO report that has been prepared from thousands of interrogations says that the Taliban have wide support among the Afghan people, reported BBC.
It alleges that Pakistan knows the locations of senior Taliban leaders.
Pakistan has, however, rejected the accusations and called it “ridiculous”.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said Wednesday in Kabul, “This is an old wine in an even older bottle” and “we can disregard this as a potentially strategic leak”.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesperson Abdul Basit said in Islamabad Wednesday: “We are committed to non-interference in Afghanistan and expect all other states to strictly adhere to this principle.”
The secret report said: “Pakistan’s manipulation of the Taliban senior leadership continues unabatedly.”
At the Pentagon, spokesperson Navy Capt. John Kirby said the US had “long standing concerns” about links between the elements of the ISI and the Taliban and wants Pakistan to “cut off” those ties.
The facts brought out by the report were “not a new notion” and “the (Defence) Secretary (Leon Panetta) has been very clear about the ongoing problem of safe havens inside Pakistan for these groups,” Kirby said.
“We have made it clear already that Pakistan needs to act against safe heavens. We would like ties between some elements of ISI and Taliban to be cut off,” he said.
