In a stern warning to Pakistan, the US has said that any deal with the militants from its restive tribal areas that allows them "save haven" or to act with impunity will "come back to haunt" Islamabad first.
"We've made very clear to the Pakistani government that the extremists who operate in the North West Frontier Province in the Federal Administered Tribal Areas are a threat to them and to us and to everybody on the globe," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in reply to a query at the at The Heritage Foundation.
Underscoring that the US and Pakistan had a "common goal" in ensuring that the militants are not allowed to operate, the top official said: "After all, it was the forces of some of those people, some of those extremists, that killed Benazir Bhutto."
"It is obviously the sovereign state of Pakistan's right to handle this situation, but we've made very clear that we are concerned that any deal with the region would be very clear that terrorists cannot be harboured, terrorists cannot operate with impunity, because ultimately that's going to come back, first and foremost, to haunt Pakistan," Rice said.
"It will haunt the rest of us too, but first and foremost, it's going to haunt Pakistan," Rice told the conservative think tank.
The statement came after a recent flare-up on the Pak-Afghan border after 11 Pakistani soldiers were killed in a US strike in the Pakistan's territory. The strike was stoutly
defended by Pentagon which said it was acting against the ultras but Islamabad lodged a formal protest with Washington.
Rice said the the US was trying to develop with the Pakistan government "a positive agenda" for its tribal region, where the "terrorists are lodged".
"We have to remember that region wasn't governed for years and years and years," Rice said.
"And so the positive agenda is to work in this very poor region with aid projects and with ways to will give the people a better choice. After all, in some of the toughest areas, when allowed to vote, they did not vote for extremist parties
"So there's something there to work with, but it has to be, as is always the case in counter insurgency, you have to be willing to make sure that the bad forces are destroyed and you have to be willing to give the population another chance. And so or a chance to live a better life" she said.
Rice said it was a "difficult time" for the new government as it was trying to settle in, "but we're prepared to help, and were prepared to help with a better life for the population, and were prepared to help in helping them to get the means to deal with this area where terrorists who are a threat to them as well as us, are lodged."
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