Will destroy safe havens of al Qaeda: Obama

Washington, Feb 10: My administration will not allow 'safe havens' for al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists operating with 'impunity' in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, warned President Barack Obama to Pakistan on Tuesday, Feb 10.

Addressing his first press conference on Tuesday, Obama asserted that this message has been asked to deliver to Pakistan by his special envoy Richard Holbrooke who is currently in Islamabad.

"My bottom line is that we cannot allow al-Qaeda to operate. We cannot have those safe havens in that region."

"You've got the Taliban and al-Qaeda operating in the Federally-administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and these border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan," he added.

President was of the opinion that his envoy Holbrooke is traveling throughout the region with an aim to deliver this message to Pakistan and to tell them they are "endangered as much as we are by the continuation of those operations, and that we've got to work in a regional fashion to root out those safe havens".

When asked about the situation in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran , Obama said that US has not seen concerted efforts to destroy such 'safe havens'.

"What we haven't seen is the kind of concerted effort to root out those safe havens that would ultimately make our mission successful," he added.

"We're going to have to work both smartly and effectively, but with consistency in order to make sure that those safe havens don't exist," said the US President. Need on thorough review of the US policies on Afghanistan and Pakistan will be carried by the new Obama Administration.

OneIndia News (With inputs from Agencies)