US will not tolerate safe havens to terrorists: Obama

Washington, Jun 23 (PTI) Insisting that Pakistan must
keep its commitments to root out the "cancer of violent
extremism", President Barack Obama Thursday asserted that the
US will never tolerate a safe haven for those who aim to kill
Americans.
"No country is more endangered by the presence of
violent extremists," Obama said referring to Pakistan.
In a televised speech on troop withdrawal plans from
Afghanistan, he said, "We will work with the Pakistani
government to root out the cancer of violent extremism, and we
will insist that it keep its commitments."
The US President sent out a blunt message that the US
was ready to launch more direct assaults on safe havens
harbouring terrorists who wanted to target Americans.
"For there should be no doubt that so long as I am
President, the United States will never tolerate a safe haven
for those who aim to kill us: they cannot elude us, nor escape
the justice they deserve," Obama said.
Obama's comments came in the midst of festering
strains in ties between the US and Pakistan following the
unilateral American action that killed al Qaeda chief Osama
bin Laden in his hideout in Abbottabad, near Islamabad, last
month.
He made it clear that Washington will "continue to
press Islamabad to expand its participation in securing a more
peaceful future for the war-torn region."
Obama announced details of the withdrawal of 33,000 US
troops from Afghanistan by the summer of 2012.
Before his speech, Obama and his Pakistani counterpart
Asif Ali Zardari, in a telephonic conversation, had agreed to
take "appropriate steps" to repair relations between the two
countries, which were affected by last month's covert American
raid that killed bin Laden. PTI LKJ
KAP