Washington: The US will push Pakistan to
take on extremists operating from its soil and stop
considering India as an existential threat so that it can
allocate their resources accordingly, a top American general
said on Tuesday.
The US is working to convince Pakistan that extremists
in the West are "as great a threat and probably a greater
threat to them than any threat that India might pose, Gen
Martin Dempsey, President Barack Obama`s nominee to be the
next Joint Chiefs of Staff said today at his confirmation
hearing.
In written response to the questions from the powerful
Senate Armed Services Committee, Dempsey said the US will
"continue to work with Pakistan to reduce the safe haven on
the (Pakistan-Afghanistan) border."
"As you know, they persist in the idea that India
poses an existential threat to their existence while the
terrorists that operate with some impunity in North West
Frontier Province and FATA are less of a threat to them, and
therefore they allocate their resources accordingly," he said,
referring to two parts of Pakistan.
"Our strategic interests and national security goals
remain to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qaeda and its
militant allies, and eliminate their capacity to threaten the
US and its allies in the future," General Dempsey said.
"Tactically, Pakistan secures our southern lines of
communication into Afghanistan. We also have an interest in
stable Pakistan and the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons
and technology," he said.
Dempsey said he would ask Pakistan to eliminate safe
havens inside its territory.
PTI
