'Dealing with western Pak is going to be a daunting task'

Washington, Mar 28 (PTI) The US's special envoy for
Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke has said that
tackling terrorism in the region will be a daunting task for
the Obama Administration in the coming months.

Interacting with reporters at the White House, Holbrooke
also linked the problem of instability in Afghanistan with the
current situation in western Pakistan.

"You could have a great government in Kabul; you could
have a government that fulfills every criteria of democratic
governance, and if the current situation in western Pakistan
continued, the instability in Afghanistan would continue," he
said in reply to a question Friday.

The Obama Administration now believes that Al-Qaeda and
the Taliban leaders are now having a safe haven in this part
of Pakistan, wherein the US-led international forces are not
able to do much.

"We have to deal with this western Pakistan problem,"
Holbrooke asserted, adding that everyone in the Obama
Administration freely admit that that is, of all the dilemmas,
problems and challenges that they face, that's going to be the
most daunting.

"It's a sovereign country and there is a red line. The
red line is unambiguous and stated publicly by the Pakistani
government over and over again: No foreign troops on our
soil," Holbrooke said. PTI LKJ
HMK