WASHINGTON: The United States say that Pakistan will have to take action all Taliban groups that are operating on its soil and territory.
In his daily briefing, State Department Deputy spokesperson said that it is an ongoing conversation that we have with the Pakistani authorities.
“We have long said that in the national security interests of the United States, we reserve the right to carry out such strikes, that killed Mullah Mansour and that criteria in some – well, to a large extent, does take into consideration the threat.” Toner asserted.
Asked if the US would give an opportunity to the new Taliban leader Mullah Haibatullah to choose peace and to work towards negotiated solution Mark Toner avoided to give a direct reply. However he said that the strike against Mansour was based on not only both his previous actions but also his intent to carry out additional strikes against Afghan forces, against U.S. military forces on the ground in Afghanistanand the fact that he was not playing a productive role or any role in leading us towards negotiations or a peace process – or talks, rather.
He repeated his earlier remarks that new Afghan leadership have an opportunity here to engage – re-engage on peace talks, and it’s their hope that they (Taliban) make that choice.
To a question that the Taliban would stiffen their opposition against engaging in talks in the face of droning their leaders, Mark Toner said the US action against Mansour was predicated on the fact that we believed he was going to carry out lethal attacks on U.S. servicemen and women in the field as well as against Afghan forces. He said that was the clear and pressing, imminent threat that we were addressing by removing him from the battlefield.
He said “ we also hope that it sent a clear signal to the Taliban that really peace and reconciliation is their only option”. He said when given the opportunity to remove a bad actor from the battlefield, we took it.
In reply to a question by an Indian journalist over Bombay attacks, Mr Toner said we continue to urge the Pakistani Government to cooperate with the Indian authorities to fully investigate these attacks. We want to see justice done and we continue to urge Pakistani cooperation.
