WASHINGTON - US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland ruled out any possibility of a war with Pakistan, while briefing newsmen in Washington.
On the question that Karzai has said that Afghanistan will side with Pakistan in case of war with US, Nuland said “It is not an issue, because it is not going to happen.”
She said that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her senior counterparts had a very frank and good conversation with the Pakistani authorities about the need to fight and talk with the terrorists.
She said that US has intensified Afghan-led efforts to clean out the militant safe heavens on the Afghanistan side of the border and is looking to work with Pakistan to do more of the same on the Pakistani side.
“We are prepared to talk to those terrorists who come off the battlefield and respect the red lines drawn by the Afghan government for this process,” she said.
She added that during the meeting with the Pakistani authorities, Clinton had specifically talked about the need for squeezing the Haqqani network and the ways in which US want Pakistan to take a lead on it.
"We had a similar message when we were starting our work together against al-Qaeda, which has been quite successful," she said.
Nuland said that Clinton had a very timely and serious consultation about Haqqani network in Pakistan and feels that it is time to move forward with the agreed work plan.
Meanwhile, reacting to Karzai saying that Afghanistan would side with Pakistan in a war with the US, the White House spokesman Jay Carney said, “I don’t have any reaction beyond that our relationship with Pakistan is complicated but important. Our cooperation with Pakistan continues and is vital to our efforts to combat al-Qaeda."
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