KABUL (SW): The Chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff has accused Pakistan’s main intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate, of having ties with terrorists.
Joseph Dunford made the announcement while facing the Senate Armed Services Committee alongside with the US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. “I think it’s clear to me that the ISI has connections with terrorist groups,” Dunford told the Committee.
Mattis echoed Dunford’s stance on ISI, stating that the agency is pursuing its own agenda while Pakistan itself struggles to fight terrorism. “They have lost probably more troops than any other single country in the fight against terrorism – at the same time we’ve seen havens left to the terrorists’ own devices. We’ve seen the government of Pakistan come down on terrorists, when the ISI appears to run its own policy,” Mattis was quoted saying by a number of media outlets.
Yet, he noted that Trump’s administration will try to work with Pakistan in Afghanistan “one more time” before exploring options to curb the alleged support for terrorism from certain elements in the Pakistani government. “We need to try one more time to make this strategy work with them, by, with and through the Pakistanis, and if our best efforts fail, the president is prepared to take whatever steps are necessary,” Mattis told House Armed Services Committee later Tuesday.
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