Washington: The Pentagon said communication lines with Pakistan’s military remain open despite acrimony over US accusations that Islamabad is behind violent extremists targeting American troops.
Despite serious disagreement, the US military had no intention of cutting off dialogue with Pakistan, Pentagon press secretary George Little told reporters.
“The lines of communication with our Pakistani counterparts remain open,” Little said. “This is a relationship that’s complicated but essential.”
The US military’s top officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, on Thursday leveled harsh accusations against Pakistan at a Senate hearing, saying the country’s intelligence agency was backing proxies in the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network that target US troops in Afghanistan.
Pakistan angrily denied the allegations, saying that the United States could lose an ally over the rift.
Pakistan’s army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said Friday the charges were “not based on facts.”
In talks with Pakistan’s government, the United States has presented solid evidence of ISI’s links to the Haqqani militants, a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Mullen made his views clear to General Kayani last Saturday in a meeting in Spain, his spokesman, Captain John Kirby, told reporters.
Mullen has spoken before about links between the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) and Islamist militants but his sharp comments on Thursday came after a surge in attacks on US troops and interests by the Haqqani network, Kirby said.
“We still want to pursue a working, productive partnership with the Pakistani military, and that in large measure depends on their willingness and their ability to disconnect themselves from extremist groups like the Haqqani network,” Kirby said.
On Thursday, Mullen accused the Haqqanis — with ISI backing — of this month’s truck bombing on a NATO base in Afghanistan that wounded 77 Americans; a 19-hour siege on the US embassy in Kabul; and a June attack on the InterContinental hotel in Kabul.
The Haqqani network, the Al-Qaeda ally, is probably the most dangerous faction in the Afghan Taliban. In the 1980s, the United States funneled arms and cash to the Haqqani faction to counter Soviet forces.
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