Washington: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that terrorists have found ‘safe haven’ in Pakistan, a country, which she said will now get under more pressure because of its economic crisis.
“It is where the terrorists and their allies have found haven. But the economy in Pakistan is under even greater pressure now because of the global economic crisis,” she said.
If Pakistan becomes more financially unstable, that increases the danger that the US will face from the threat by the extremists to the Pakistan Government, Clinton argued.
About three days ago, Clinton had said US will ‘thoroughly study’ the deal struck between the Taliban leaders in Swat valley and the Pakistan government. Hillary Clinton also voiced concern over the situation in Pakistan.
“The entire situation in Pakistan is a concern,” Clinton had told the ABC news in an interview, her first as the Secretary of State to a TV news channel.
“Obviously, we believe that the activity by the extremist elements in Pakistan poses a direct threat to the government of Pakistan, as well as to the security of the United States, Afghanistan, and a number of other nations not only in the immediate region,” Clinton said, according to a State Department transcripts of her media encounter in Tokyo.
In a recent interview to the ABC news, Clinton agreed with Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair that the economic crisis poses the greatest threat to the security now and this needs to be fixed urgently.
“That is not, in any way, to underestimate the importance of the continuing threat from terrorism, the instability in the Middle East and Afghanistan and Pakistan and elsewhere,” she said according to a transcript released by the State Department.
“I appreciated his (Blair's) putting that into the context of the threat matrix, because look at Pakistan, a country that we know has to be stabilised for the benefit of not only South Asia, but beyond,” Clinton said.
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