US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses a news conference with Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff at US embassy in Islamabad, Friday. (AP)‘Islamabad needed in Afghan talks'ISLAMABAD: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday the United States was more committed to Pakistan after the Osama Bin Laden crisis, but urged the country to take decisive steps to defeat Al-Qaeda. Clinton is the most senior US official to visit Islamabad since relations between the wary allies went into freefall over the US Navy SEALs raid on May 2 that killed the Al-Qaeda chief in the city of Abbottabad. Shrouded in blanket security, she met Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, before talks with army chief Ashfaq Kayani and the chief of Pakistan's intelligence agency Ahmad Shuja Pasha. The discovery that the world's most-wanted man was living just a stone's throw from Pakistan's equivalent of West Point raised renewed questions about complicity or incompetence within the US-aid dependent Pakistani establishment. Clinton said the United States had “absolutely no evidence” that anyone at the highest level of government” knew where Bin Laden was and she would return to Washington “ever more committed” to the relationship. Pakistan, Clinton said, had been “very forthcoming in saying somebody somewhere” was providing support to Bin Laden and that a probe was under way. She sought to smooth relations, supported the Pakistani investigation into Bin Laden's time as a fugitive and called for Pakistan to help with a political solution to the 10-year war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. “This was an especially important visit because we have reached a turning point. Osama Bin Laden is dead but Al-Qaeda and his syndicate of terror remain a serious threat to us both,” Clinton said. “Pakistan has a responsibility to help us help Afghanistan by preventing insurgents from waging war from Pakistan's territory. “We look forward to putting those words into action and seeing momentum for a political resolution.” The government's alliance with Washington is deeply unpopular in Pakistan, where the Bin Laden operation and a CIA drone war against militant commanders in the tribal belt fuels widespread anti-American sentiment. “America cannot and should not solve Pakistan's problems. That's up to Pakistan. But in solving its problems, Pakistan should understand that anti-Americanism and conspiracy theories will not make problems disappear,” Clinton said. The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, accompanied Clinton and pleaded for greater military cooperation. “Now is not the time for retreat or for recrimination. Now is the time for action and closer coordination,” he said. “The fight will and must go on with a Pakistani military and a US military acting, coordinating and leading together. We've come too far and sacrificed too much to be it any other way.” Clinton brushed aside suggestions that the meetings had been tense and sought to give Pakistan credit for the sacrifice of thousands of soldiers in military offensives and thousands of civilians in bomb attacks. Pakistan has suffered a wave of fresh attacks this month, with the country's main Taliban faction claiming hits on Pakistani and American targets to avenge Bin Laden's death. On the eve of Clinton's visit, 35 people were killed in a suicide car bombing outside a police station in the northwestern town of Hangu. “We both recognise there is still much more work required and it is urgent,” Clinton told reporters at the end of a visit that lasted just a few hours. She said the talks discussed in detail how to disarm, dismantle and defeat Al-Qaeda in the region. “We will do our part and we look to the government of Pakistan to take decisive steps in the days ahead,” she said. – Agence France
