Pak must make sincere efforts to curb terrorism on Afghan border: Pompeo

Team Udayavani, Oct 24, 2018, 10:37 AM IST

Washington: Pakistan will be held responsible if they do not make sincere efforts to curb terrorism on their western border with Afghanistan, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said.

Talking to reporters Tuesday at the State Department’s Foggy Bottom headquarters, Pompeo said this was the message he had delivered to the Pakistani leadership when he travelled to Islamabad in September, after Imran Khan became prime minister.

We had made clear that the US policy with respect to south-central Asia has not changed, that our expectation is that Pakistan will not provide safe harbor to terrorists on their western border, he said in response to a question on AfPak.

On September 5, Pompeo met Khan and pressed him “to do more” to rein in the terror groups operating from Pakistan’s soil.

We couldn’t make that message any more clear and that Pakistan will be held account if they don’t see about it… If they’re not sincere in that effort.

“We don’t believe we can get to the place that everyone wants. Everyone wants reconciliation in Afghanistan, and to achieve that you can’t have a safe harbor for Taliban – for Haqqani, and for others inside of Pakistan, Pompeo said.

The Pakistani government knows that “that’s our review and this administration has already made significant efforts to hold them accountable and we hope that they’ll achieve the goal that we have out for them, said the Secretary of State.

He indicated that there has been no change in the Trump administration’s policy with regard to suspension of security aid to Pakistan unless it takes satisfactory measures to eliminate safe terrorist safe havens.

Early this year, US President Donald Trump had suspended USD 300 million in security aid to Pakistan. India, too, had asked Pakistan to stop supporting and glorifying terrorists and terror activities against India and its other neighbours.