After Pakistan, US cautions Taliban regime over Afghanistan becoming terrorist 'safe haven'

The US State Department on Tuesday said that it holds the Taliban administration responsible for ensuring that Afghan soil is prevented from being used as a "safe haven for launching terrorist attacks". The State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller was asked by a journalist during a press conference about the US government's stance on Pakistan's warnings to the Afghan Taliban for harbouring terrorists. "Pakistan just had its Corps Commanders’ Conference held [on Monday] in which they urged Afghanistan to take care of the terrorist sanctuaries there which are coming and doing activities in Pakistan. And this – in one week this is the second time that Pakistan military has openly told Afghanistan to take some action, otherwise they are going to take some action against them," noted the journalist before asking Miller for his views on the matter. Read Defence minister rebukes Afghanistan for violating Doha pact "I don’t have any comment specifically on that, but I will say we have made very clear that we believe the Taliban has the responsibility to prevent Afghanistan from being used as a safe haven for launching terrorist attacks," responded the spokesperson. Notably, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir had also issued a stern warning last week to the interim Afghan Taliban government over the presence of banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) across the border, saying recent terrorist attacks would elicit an effective response from Pakistan. Last year, amid the ongoing uptick in terrorist violence perpetrated by the TTP, the top US military commander had said that the United States is concerned at the threat posed by the TTP to Pakistan’s security. Subsequently, then State Department Spokesperson Ned Price had said that the US supported Pakistan’s right to defend itself from terrorism, saying that the Pakistani people had “suffered tremendously” from such attacks as Washington repeated its call on the Afghan Taliban not to allow terrorist groups to use their soil to launch attacks abroad. US opposes Israeli settlement activity During the conference, Miller was also asked about Israeli attempts at adding new settlements to which he responded by saying that the US "opposes such unilateral actions that make a two-state solution more difficult to achieve and are an obstacle to peace. That includes settlement activity," he said. "We have made this clear publicly – made it clear in a conversation with you a number of times – and we make it clear in our conversations with Israeli Government officials," he added. Read More US to defund Israeli universities' research in West Bank When asked about the recent arrest of a Palestinian journalist, Miller declined to comment on the matter specifically but stressed that "the United States supports press freedom and the protection of all journalists in carrying out their work." In response to another question about the US president's decision to invite Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu despite having expressed concerns about many different actions that the Israeli Government has taken, the spokesperson said that "the characterisation oversimplifies our relationship with this government". "As is true for a number of our allies, there are things with which we agree with Israel, things with which we disagree. We make clear in all of our engagements with Israel that our commitment to their security is ironclad. At the same time, we make – we raise concerns that we have with them. "We also have priorities that we’re working on with respect to the government of Israel. As you know, Secretary Blinken travelled to Saudi Arabia recently, where he pressed for normalisation with Saudi Arabia. We’ve launched an extensive effort to deepen and broaden normalisation with other countries in the region. "So yes, we do have concerns with certain actions the government of Israel takes, but we have other issues on which we have shared priorities and we work together. So our relationship with them is one where we have some things we agree on and work together and other places where we have concerns and we press them privately and publicly," he said.

from Pakistan News, Latest News Pakistan, Pakistan Headline | The Express Tribune https://ift.tt/Ms8XNBx