Updated on
Summary
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates strongly praised for Pakistan's efforts to root out extremist militants amid concern about potential links between the failed Times Square car bombing and Pakistani army's commitment to fighting extremists inside its borders.Gates says the US remains willing to offer as much help as the Pakistani government will accept. He has not indicated a new push for more US forces in Pakistan following the attempted bombing in Times Square. Gates said the Obama administration is sticking to its policy of offering to do as much training and other military activity inside Pakistan as the Pakistani government is willing to accept. The Pakistanis have been doing so much more than 18 months or two years ago any of us would have expected, Gates told reporters. He referred to Pakistani Army offensives, dating to spring 2009, against Taliban extremists in areas near the Afghan border, including in South Waziristan. If you look at it from the Pakistanis' standpoint, there is some justification for their concerns, Gates said. Their view is that in several successive instances the United States has turned its back on Pakistan. And the biggest question they have is, Once you are done in Afghanistan, are you going home again? Or will we have a long-term relationship? It's their country and they remain in the driver's seat, and they have their foot on the accelerator, he added. Officials are trying to establish whether Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American suspected in the incident, had connections to foreign terrorist groups that either funded or helped in the botched bombing.
