13 December 2009: AFP
US General David Petraeus said on Sunday
that Pakistan needs to put pressure on the leadership of Afghan Taliban
operating inside its borders if long-term progress is to be made in
Afghanistan.
"(To make) the really significant progress in
Afghanistan that will be necessary over time... it would be very
helpful if additional pressure could be put (by Pakistan) on the
leadership of the elements that are causing problems in Afghanistan,"
the head of the US Central Command told reporters
on the sidelines of
the sixth Manama Dialogue security conference.
President Barack
Obama's administration has pressed Islamabad to act against Taliban and
Al-Qaeda sanctuaries inside its borders, saying that success in
Afghanistan depended on disrupting cross-border safe havens.
When
asked about Petraeus' comment, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood
Qureshi, also in Bahrain for the security summit, said: "We have put in
a lot of pressure. And we intend to continue to do that.
"Just
look at the operation in South Waziristan," he said. "Something like
600 Taliban people and miscreants were eliminated in this push."
Petraeus
praised Pakistani operations including that in South Waziristan, but
said they mainly focused on Pakistani, not Afghan, Taliban groups.
Qureshi
responded: "For us, a terrorist is a terrorist, whether he operates on
this side of the border or that side of the border."
The CENTCOM
chief said Pakistan's forces have been "quite impressive" against
primarily Pakistani Taliban forces, fuelled by the realisation that
extremist groups inside the country pose a significant threat.
"There
was a recognition by all the Pakistani leaders... that the main threat
to the very writ of Pakistani governance was the internal extremist
threat," Petraeus said.
"That recognition is of considerable
importance because it was that that has supported the Pakistani
military and Frontier Corps in conducting some quite impressive
operations" against extremists, primarily the Pakistani Taliban.
Petraeus
also told reporters he thinks there is potential to form alliances with
local forces in Afghanistan along the lines of the Sahwa or Awakening
groups -- called the Sons of Iraq by the US military -- in Iraq.
"Is
there potential for this? We think so," he said. "There are actually
some initiatives that have been launched in that regard, they're under
the heading of CDI (Community Defence Initiative).
"It
essentially involves small Special Forces teams that have members who
know the language, culture and area, and basically live in the village
with the people and seek to involve them and empower them in the
maintenance of their own security."
But Petraeus also sounded a note of caution.
"This
is not quite the same as the Sons of Iraq. This is more of a village by
village and valley by valley" approach, rather than along wider tribal
lines as was the case in Iraq.
