WASHINGTON: The United States has reinforced Pakistan’s call on the Taliban to prevent Afghanistan’s soil from being used as a “safe haven” for terrorist attacks, amid a spike in such strikes across the country.
“I will say we have made very clear that we believe the Taliban has the responsibility to prevent – Afghanistan from being used as a safe haven for launching terrorist attacks,” State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said in response to a question at his daily press briefing on Monday.
The spokesperson was responding to a question from a Pakistani journalist about the Corps Commanders’ conference warning to the Taliban against providing safe havens to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a UN-designated terrorist group.
An ISPR statement issued after the meeting in Rawalpindi said, “The sanctuaries and liberty of action available to the terrorists of proscribed TTP and other groups of that ilk in a neighboring country and availability of latest weapons to the terrorists were noted as major reasons impacting the security of Pakistan.”