US envoy urges Pakistan not to let Pakistan use its soil for terrorism against any other country
US envoy urges Pakistan not to let Pakistan use its soil for terrorism against any other country: The US Ambassador David Hale at the start of the week said that he hoped Pakistan would live up to its pledge of not allowing terrorists to use its soil against any other country. Ambassador Hale also called for greater Pak-US cooperation for peace and stability in the region.
Ambassador Hale made these observations in a meeting with Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa at the GHQ. The observations looked like a close follow up to US President Donald Trump’s speech at the Arab-Islamic-American Summit in Riyadh. In the speech President Trump had said to Muslim countries to ensure that “terrorists find no sanctuary on their soil”. President Trump has also called it as the first needed step for the combined effort to defeat terrorism.
However The Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), in its statement said: “COAS (Gen Bajwa) reiterated Pakistan’s stance that its soil is not being used for terrorist activities against any other country nor shall we tolerate any such action against Pakistan.”
US ambassador during the meeting with the army chief also recalled that President Trump in his Riyadh speech had talked about “a vision of peace, security, and prosperity, and unity in conquering extremism and terrorism”.
Ambassador Hale’s meeting with Gen Bajwa comes ahead of the Nato Summit in Brussels on Thursday. American President Trump is expected to unveil his administration’s policy on Afghanistan at the Nato summit. It is expected that the policy would invove an increase in the numbers of US troops deployed in that country.
The statements issued by the US embassy and ISPR pointed to the American ambassador taking up the issue of alleged Taliban sanctuaries on Pakistani soil. Experts say that it was unusual for the US embassy to issue a statement on the ambassador’s meeting with the army chief. Usually such press announcements are made by the ISPR only.
According to the statement issued by the US embassy: “Ambassador Hale thanked General Bajwa for his public commitment on May 18 that Pakistan is taking measures to ensure that militants do not use Pakistan’s soil to conduct attacks against any country. In this vein, during their meeting General Bajwa offered renewed assurances that Pakistan would not permit its territory to be used to plan or conduct attacks against Afghanistan.”
During the meeting the US embassy noted that both Ambassador Hale and Gen Bajwa “reiterated their nations’ commitment to a secure, stable, and prosperous Afghanistan”.
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