Pakistan on Monday warned that the Pak-U.S. relationship would be seriously impacted if anything was done to impair the long-term strategic partnership between the two countries.
"Any transgression of the accepted parameters would be unacceptable and would damage the interests between the two countries," the Pakistani Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told reporters at a weekly briefing in the capital Islamabad.
Aslam made the remarks in response to a question about the comments made by U.S. Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns who stated that his country would not hesitate in striking suspected al-Qaeda hideouts in Pakistan's tribal areas.
Some U.S. officials had been demanding Pakistan to do more in eliminating terrorists while ignoring the efforts made by Pakistan in this regard, Aslam said, adding that combating terrorists was in Pakistan's national interest.
"Pakistan is pursuing a comprehensive strategy that combines military action where necessary and political and administrative measures to cleanse the region of terrorist elements who came to Pakistan, following the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan." Aslam said.
Aslam said Pakistan was dealing with challenges in its neighborhood with extreme care and expected that its friends would not complicate the difficult task.
Aslam recalled the statements made by U.S. President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney that acknowledged Pakistan's role in countering terrorism along with the international community.
With regard to the draft bill recently adopted by the U.S. Congress, which proposed conditionalities on the continuation of U. S. assistance to Pakistan, Aslam said that the placement of conditionalities was in no way conducive to the healthy relationship between the two countries and it would cast shadow on Pak-U.S. cooperation.
Source: Xinhua
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