Hillary expresses concern over Pak govt's peace pact with FATA militants

Washington, May 23 : Expressing her concerns at the recent 'peace pact' between the Pakistan government and the pro-Taliban militants in the Swat region of NWFP, US' Democrat Senator Hillary Clinton has said that if the US was going to suffer another attack after 9/11, it would most certainly originate from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.

She said this while attending a Senate hearing last evening after taking time of her busy election campaign schedule.

She told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the US government had lost the initiative, "both militarily and diplomatically" in Pakistan and Afghanistan because of its preoccupation with Iraq.

"The recent announcement by the new Pakistani government, with respect to the agreement reached with the Taliban, is concerning to me," the Dawn quoted her as saying.

She asked Gen David Petraeus, the nominated commander for the US Central Command, if he had enough troops in Afghanistan to win the war against terrorists in Afghanistan. In his reply, the General said that while the US and its NATO allies were all sending additional troops to Afghanistan, "I am not sure that that will be all that are required."

"I think there clearly is more that can and should be done in helping the new government in Pakistan, because this is a Pakistani problem that ... does create enormous violence inside Pakistan, (and) has global implications, as well. Six-and-a-half years after 9/11, it is deeply troubling that we have not captured or killed or essentially decapitated the capacity of Al Qaeda under the leadership it had in 2001, which is still the leadership it has today," said Senator Clinton.

Referring to Senator Clinton's statement on the FATA, Gen Petraeus said he too had "concerns" about the situation in the area. "That is, of course, where Al Qaeda senior leadership is resonant. Their ability and the ability of the Taliban to send fighters from those areas into Afghanistan is very destabilising," he added.

ANI