US pressure makes Afgan crisis worse
President Barack Obama's warning to Islamabad over suspected ties to militants will only fuel anti-Americanism and make it harder for Pakistan to support US efforts to stabilize Afghanistan, a senior senator said yesterday.
Pakistan is seen as critical to bringing peace to neighboring Afghanistan, but the United States has failed to persuade it to go after militant groups it says cross the border to attack Western forces in Afghanistan.
"This is not helping either the United States, Afghanistan or Pakistan," Salim Saifullah, chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, told Reuters.
"There will be pressure on the (Pakistan) government to get out of this war," he said, referring to the U.S. war on militancy.
Obama warned Pakistan Thursday that its ties with "unsavory characters" had put relations with the United States at risk, as he ratcheted up pressure on Islamabad to cut links with militants mounting attacks in Afghanistan.
His comments are likely to deepen a crisis in the strategic alliance between the United States and Pakistan.
Obama accused Pakistan's leaders of "hedging their bets" on Afghanistan's future, but stopped short of threatening to cut off U.S. aid, despite calls from lawmakers for a tougher line over accusations that Pakistani intelligence supported strikes on U.S. targets in Afghanistan.
Pakistan says it has sacrificed more than any other nation that joined America's global "war on terror" after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, losing 10,000 soldiers and security forces, and 30,000 civilians.
But its performance against militants operating from its unruly tribal northwest border region is a frequent source of tension between Washington and Islamabad.
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