Hillary Clinton Visits Pakistan to Urge Action against Taliban Militants

U.S. Secretary of the State Hillary Clinton landed in Islamabad on Thursday to deliver a tough warning to Pakistan to cut suspected ties with militant groups which have severely strained ties between the uneasy allies. Clinton, arriving from the Afghan capital, Kabul, went immediately to the U.S. embassy and then went to a dinner meeting attended by top U.S. and Pakistani military and civilian leaders. The heavyweight U.S. team, including new CIA director David Petraeus and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, was a clear sign that Washington is determined to get its message across. 

Then they met Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who were expected to be joined by Pakistan's powerful army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, and Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the head of the Inter-services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency which U.S. officials have singled out for its alleged support of militant groups.

          Hillary Clinton speaks with Pakistani MPs at the US embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. 

She said the US held one preliminary meeting with the Haqqani network "to see if they would show up,” and also she added to the Pakistani journalists that the Pakistani government officials helped to facilitate such a meeting." Mrs. Clinton said that the US had reached out to the Taliban and to the Haqqani network to test their sincerity and willingness to engage in a peace process and also Clinton warns Pakistan to cut suspected ties with militant groups. (The US military was furious about a Haqqani-directed truck bomb that injured 77 US soldiers, and a subsequent attack on the US embassy in Kabul.)

DETERMINED MESSAGE

U.S. officials had earlier said Clinton would seek to strike a constructive tone in discussions with Pakistani leaders, who have strongly denied backing insurgents and accused the United States of ignoring Pakistan's own interests in the battle against militants. But Clinton on Thursday took a clearly combative tone, saying Islamabad had a choice to make. "It is a time for clarity. It is a time for people to declare themselves as to how we are going to work together," she said.

The US has blamed the recent attack on Kabul's US embassy on the Haqqani network