Rice urges caution on unilateral action on Pakistani soil

Stressing Pakistan’s sovereignty, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has advised caution against any suggestions for US unilateral action against terrorists that may be hiding on the Pakistani side of the Afghan border. Commenting on Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s suggestions, Rice told an American TV channel that Washington has been working co-operatively with the South Asian ally to curb terrorism threat along Pakistan-Afghanistan border region.

“The United States is acting with Pakistan to deal with the terrorism threat. One has to be a little careful about what you say about the territory of a sovereign state with which you are not at war.

And so we have done this in working with the Pakistanis and working together to share intelligence and working together to deal with threats when they emerge,” she told Bloomberg TV channel. The top US diplomat said everybody needs to do more in the fight against terrorism.

“Do we need to do more? Absolutely. Everybody needs to do more. But I would be very careful with what I say about the territory of a sovereign state.” Acknowledging the complexity of the problem in the rugged and historically ungoverned Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, she pointed out the region “is very difficult for anyone to govern and very difficult for anyone to operate in.”

Rice said the US Administration has been actively co-operating with Pakistan “whether it is on the matter of democracy, where we were very active in pushing for democratic change in Pakistan, or in the work that we have done to help the Pakistanis deal with a terrorism threat that is a threat not just to the United States, not just to Afghanistan, but also to Pakistan.”

“After all, it was the network in that region that assassinated Benazir Bhutto. And so this is a threat to Pakistan as well,” she remarked. She also noted counterterrorism successes in the region over the past years.