Updated on
Summary
The Obama administration has delivered new and stiff warnings to Pakistan after the botched Times Square car bombing that it must urgently move against the nexus of Islamic militancy in the countrys lawless tribal regions, sources said. The American military commander in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal, met with the Pakistani military chief, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, at his headquarters here on Friday and urged Pakistan to move more quickly in beginning a military offensive against the Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda in North Waziristan. The new pressure from Washington was characterized by both the Pakistani and American officials as a sharp turnaround from the relatively polite encouragement adopted by the Obama administration in recent months. And it comes amid increasing debate within the administration about how to expand the American militarys influence and even a boots-on-the-ground presence on Pakistani soil. The American ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson, met Pakistans president, Asif Ali Zardari, after the failed bombing and used forceful language to convey the American point that the Pakistanis had to move more assertively against the militants threaded through the society, a Pakistani official said.
