Washington: US Vice President Joe Biden
today said that the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban leadership are in
Pakistan and the new Af-Pak policy is focusing on it.
"The ball is al-Qaeda. That`s the reason we`re there.
They are in Pakistan. The Taliban leadership is in Pakistan,"
Biden, who during the Bush Administration was sceptical of
taking the eye off the ball, told the NBC Today television
show in an interview.
Biden said he wanted to make sure that the focus
stayed on those two elements of America`s concern and didn`t
sort of morph into a nation-building exercise that would tie
the US down for 10 years.
He said al Qaeda and the most extreme forces in
Pakistan want to topple Pakistan, which he added is the real
threat to the US.
Supporting the President`s decision to send 30,000
additional troops to Afghanistan, Biden said this is to break
the momentum of the Taliban, giving the Afghan government
opportunity to train up, through US and international help,
the forces it needs to maintain its own security.
And at the same time going into the Taliban and
reintegrating and re-involving elements of the Taliban who are
not incorrigible, who want to be part of the process, he said.
PTI
