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Pakistan slams Obama
03/08/2007 16:45 - (SA)
Islamabad - Pakistan on Friday criticised United States presidential hopeful Barack Obama for saying that, if elected, he might order unilateral military strikes inside this Islamic nation to root out terrorists.
Top Pakistan officials said Obama's comment was irresponsible and likely made for political reasons related to the race for the Democratic nomination for next year's US presidential election.
"It's a very irresponsible statement, that's all I can say," said Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khusheed Kasuri. "As the election campaign in America is heating up we would not like American candidates to fight their elections and contest elections at our expense."
Also on Friday, a senior Pakistani official condemned another presidential hopeful, Colorado Republican Tom Tancredo, for saying the best way he could think of to deter a nuclear terrorist attack on the US would be to threaten to retaliate by bombing the holiest Islamic sites of Mecca and Medina.
'They are plotting to strike again'
Obama triggered anger in Pakistan, a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, when he said in a speech on Wednesday that as president he would order US military action against terrorists in Pakistan's tribal region bordering Afghanistan if intelligence warranted it.
Many analysts believe that top Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders including Osama bin Laden are hiding in region after escaping the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 that toppled that Taliban regime after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
"There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3 000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again," Obama said. "If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf will not act, we will."
President Pervez Musharraf has come under growing pressure from Washington to do more to tackle the alleged al-Qaeda havens in Pakistan.
US President George W Bush's administration has not ruled out military strikes, but still stresses the importance of cooperating with Pakistan.
On Friday, 1 000 tribesmen rallied in Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal area, condemning recent military operations and chanting slogans against the United States for threatening to launch attacks in their areas.
"We are able to defend ourselves. We will teach a lesson to America if it attacks us," local cleric Maulvi Mohammed Roman told the rally.
- AP
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