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Obama applauds Afghan and Pakistan cooperation

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-07 17:05

WASHINGTON -- US President Barack Obama is applauding Pakistan and Afghanistan for their commitment to helping the US fight terrorists holed up in their territory, but he also is cautioning that the path to success is slow and unsure.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai (C) and US Vice President Joe Biden (L) look on as US President Barack Obama (R) makes a statement to reporters at the White House in Washington, May 6, 2009. Also present was Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari. [Agencies]

"The road ahead will be difficult," Obama said Wednesday after a series of meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari that yielded few announced new commitments. "There will be more violence, and there will be setbacks."

Obama added, "The United States has made a lasting commitment to defeat al-Qaida, but also to support the democratically elected sovereign governments of both Pakistan and Afghanistan. That commitment will not waver, and that support will be sustained."

Obama's national security adviser, Gen. Jim Jones, told reporters later that Obama was clear in his support for Zardari, who has come under heavy US criticism for doing too little to combat a Taliban insurgency. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, for example, told Congress last week that Pakistan was "abdicating" to the Taliban extremists.

"The president pledged to do whatever we could, to do what we can as quickly as possible to help the Pakistani government, and said this type of aid would not just be restricted to military," Jones said. "Miracles will not happen, so this won't happen quickly. But with a common focus, we can make strides hopefully in the near future."

Wednesday's meetings, which began at the State Department and then moved to the White House, had the added complication of reports that US airstrikes on Sunday had killed dozens of civilians in western Afghanistan. The top US commander in Afghanistan suggested that the Taliban might be to blame, but Obama and Clinton felt compelled to respond sympathetically.

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Obama expressed US regret, promising to "make every effort" to avoid further tragedies as allied forces press the fight against a rising Taliban insurgency.

Obama also used the occasion to laud "unprecedented cooperation" between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which share a long, poorly demarcated and porous border.

"Along the border, where insurgents often move freely, we must work together with a renewed sense of partnership to share intelligence and to coordinate our efforts to isolate, target and take out our common enemy," Obama said in a statement delivered at the White House with Karzai and Zardari at his side.

Obama took no questions from reporters and neither of the other leaders spoke. Obama met separately with Karzai and Zardari, followed by a three-way session.

The latest report of Afghan civilian casualties came at an especially awkward time for the administration, which is stepping up its military campaign inside Afghanistan while also seeking to emphasize the importance of nonmilitary efforts to stabilize the country. The administration has pledged, for example, a major increase in civilian expertise in farming and other specialties.

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