Obama worries about weakness of Pakistan’s government
Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 8:38 am
President Barack Obama worries about the weakness of Pakistan’s government and did not rule out US intervention if the Islamic power’s nuclear weapons fell into extremist hands.
In a prime-time news conference marking the 100-day milestone of his presidency, Obama said he was increasingly confident that Pakistan was serious about fighting Islamic militants and that its nuclear weapons were secure.
But Obama said that the civilian government of President Asif Ali Zardari, who is due in Washington next week, was unable to provide basic services that would ensure people’s loyalty.
“I am gravely concerned about the situation in Pakistan, not because I think that they’re immediately going to be overrun and the Taliban would take over in Pakistan,” Obama said.
“I’m more concerned that the civilian government there right now is very fragile,” he said.
“We want to respect their sovereignty, but we also recognize that we have huge strategic interests — huge national security interests — in making sure that Pakistan is stable and that you don’t end up having a nuclear-armed militant state.”
Pressed on whether the United States would intervene if Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal were under threat, Obama said he would not respond to a hypothetical question.
Obama, who has put a new focus on rooting out extremism in Pakistan and Afghanistan in his first 100 days, has continued the previous George W. Bush administration’s controversial drone attacks inside Pakistan.
Obama said he was confident that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal was secure, “because the Pakistani army, I think, recognizes the hazards of those weapons falling into the wrong hands.”
He also said that Pakistan’s military had just recently started to overcome its historic animosity toward India.
“You’re starting to see some recognition just in the last few days that the obsession with India as the mortal threat to Pakistan has been misguided and that their biggest threat right now comes internally,” Obama said.
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