US will stay in Afghanistan, Gates tells Husain Haqqani

WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he has reassured Pakistan that the United States would not be pulling out of Afghanistan despite a strategy review underway at the White House.

‘I had lunch with the Pakistani ambassador last week, and I made absolutely clear to him: we are not leaving Afghanistan,’ Gates said in an interview with CNN on Monday.

Asked about Pakistan’s concerns that a debate within the administration over the war in neighbouring Afghanistan raised questions about Washington’s long-term commitment, Gates said there was no doubt about US interests in the region.

The discussion underway at the White House was about the ‘next steps forward’ in the Afghan war, Gates said.

‘And while there may be some short-term uncertainty on the part of our allies, in terms of those next steps, there should be no uncertainty in terms of our determination to remain in Afghanistan and to continue to build a relationship of partnership and trust with the Pakistanis,’ he said.

‘That’s long term,’ he said, calling Pakistan a ‘strategically important country.’

Gates was speaking in a joint interview with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton taped before an audience at George Washington University. The program is due to air on Tuesday.

The remarks come 48 hours after one of the US military’s worst days in eight years of war in Afghanistan, when eight American soldiers and two Afghan soldiers were killed Saturday as hundreds of militants raided two posts in remote Nuristan province.

Congress last week approved a giant US aid package for Pakistan, on the front lines of the US campaign against extremism.

Washington worked with Pakistan to force the Soviets out of neighbouring Afghanistan in the 1980s but then eased its involvement.

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