Washington: Refusing to make any comment on `memogate` which has created a political storm in Pakistan, a top White House official said on Saturday that the US shares a critically important relationship with Pakistan.
"I don`t have a way to comment from this distance. I just don`t have a way to comment on that from this distance at this point," National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, told reporters travelling with the US President in Bali in response to a question on what is now being termed as memogate.
Amid the raging political storm in Pakistan over `memogate`, its envoy to the US, Husain Haqqani has left for Islamabad to explain his position with regard to the controversy over the secret memorandum in which his country`s civilian leadership purportedly sought American help to stave off a possible military takeover.
The top American official further said that the US has "obviously a critically important relationship with Pakistan. We have a critically important counterterrorism relationship with the Pakistanis that we work on every single day."
"We have, obviously, the support that we need for our efforts in Afghanistan that we work on each day with the Pakistanis. We work with both the civilian government and with the military, depending on the issue," Donilon said."But I don`t have a way, from this distance, to comment on the question that you raise," said the National Security Advisor.
"I think retired Admiral Mullen has confirmed that he at least received this memo, and it`s really kind of threatened the whole Pakistani government right now.”
“And I guess two parts: One, what do you think about the state of the Pakistani government right now, whether President Zardari may step down? But also, was anyone at the White House ever involved in these conversations with the Pakistani ambassador who`s now been recalled?" was the question asked.
PTI
