US wants no terrorist safe havens in Afghanistan- Pakistan, says James Mattis

BRUSSELS (AFP): As part of its new south Asia strategy, the United States wants to make sure that there are no terrorist safe havens in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the US defence secretary James Norman Mattis has said, asserting that there are ways for the US-led NATO member countries to hold Islamabad accountable for its fight against terrorism.

The new South Asia strategy comprises of regionalization, realigning of forces, reinforcing them and to reconciliation, the political goal, he told reporters at the NATO headquarters in Brussels. “What we want to do is start with – from India to across the region — is to make certain that everyone’s working off the same sheet of music.

“We want to make certain that no terrorist organisation can find a haven anywhere, and, with a border adjoining Afghanistan, that makes Pakistan a priority,” Mattis said. As such the United States is engaging with the Pakistanis, he added.

“We’re engaging a whole-of-government effort. We’ve got international efforts going on. And one of the reasons we brought it up here was to make certain we were all aligned about where we stood on this,” the US defence secretary said.

Referring to the discussions he had with other NATO member countries, Mattis said, “It was remarkable alignment about us all working together to get Pakistan to do everything it can to cut the insurgents off, the terrorists off.”

When asked what is different with the Pakistan policy this time, Mattis said there are ways that the US can reward Pakistan and ways that the international community can ensure they are held to account. “But our principle, going into this, is that we are going to work with Pakistan and make this work, so that there’s no longer a threat coming across the border there,” he said.