Agence France Presse  --  Arab News

WASHINGTON, 8 March 2004 — The US State Department on Tuesday ruled out the possibility of American troops entering Pakistani territory to go after Al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters taking sanctuary there.

“Frankly, I think that’s an eventuality that, fortunately, we don’t have to deal with at this point,” Adam Ereli, the department’s deputy spokesman, said in response to controversial comments by the US envoy to Afghanistan a day earlier. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad had angered Islamabad with his warning that US-led forces in Afghanistan would move into Pakistani territory to destroy the sanctuaries of the extremist groups if Pakistan failed to complete the job.

The Pakistan Foreign Ministry said the comments were unwarranted and uncalled for, saying top US officials had greatly appreciated Islamabad’s efforts in eliminating Al-Qaeda and Taleban groups and that Pakistan did not require any foreign assistance.

Ereli noted there were “deep-rooted and committed terrorists in that part of the world who need to be acted against,” but the United States would continue to work with Pakistan in “any way that we can” to eradicate them.

“It’s not a question of now or never; it’s a question of we’re both in this for the long haul,” he stressed. On Monday, US envoy Khalilzad said “we have told the Pakistani leadership that either they must solve this problem or we will have to do it for ourselves.”

“We cannot allow this problem to fester indefinitely,” he said. Speaking at a media forum in Washington on Tuesday, Khalilzad said he “very much” appreciated what Pakistan had done against Al-Qaeda and Taleban forces in its unruly northwest tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

But he said: “Al-Qaeda elements still remain, and also the Taleban leaders. I was urging more needs to be done,” he said. “The job is not finished. I don’t think Pakistanis will say the job is done at this point.”

Khalilzad, who is President George W. Bush’s special envoy to Afghanistan, said he welcomed Pakistan’s contention that it could deal with the problem by itself. “We prefer that as well - that they deal with it and we are ready to help them.”

It was the second time he had criticized Pakistan. Last month, Khalilzad charged that Taleban and Al-Qaeda fugitives were launching attacks into Afghanistan from Pakistani soil, the claim drew an angry response from Islamabad.

Pakistani authorities last month stepped up efforts to eradicate militants in the remote, semi-autonomous region.