Obama does not want unstable Afghanistan to destabilize Pak

Washington, Feb 3 (ANI): US President Barack Obama has said his administration wants to make sure that Afghanistan is not a safe haven for al-Qaeda and the insurgency-hit country does not destabilise its nuclear-armed neighbour Pakistan.

Obama told NBC in an interview that his administration is for having clear objectives in Afghanistan and wants to fix the drift that occurred there over the last two years.

"We are not gonna be able to rebuild Afghanistan into a Jeffersonian democracy," Obama said.

"What we can do is make sure that Afghanistan is not a safe haven for al-Qaida. What we can do is make sure that it is not destabilising neighboring Pakistan, which has " nuclear weapons.

"The key is ... we've got to have a clear objective. And there's been drift in Afghanistan over the last couple of years. And that's something that we intend to fix this year," he said in response to questions about the US objectives in Afghanistan.

Obama's remarks clearly indicated his administration's emphasis on setting clear US goals in Afghanistan, where security has been deteriorating in the face of a growing Taliban insurgency over the last two years, The Nation reported. (ANI)