The power grab by Taliban insurgents in Pakistan puts the nation's future at a "crossroads," according to France's new special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. With the Taliban having advanced to districts just 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the capital, Pakistan "has a fire inside its own house" that it must extinguish, said lawmaker, lawyer and foreign policy expert Pierre Lellouche.
"There is not a lot of time" in light of "the gravity of the situation," he told reporters in New Delhi late Thursday after visiting Islamabad on a fact-finding mission. Pakistan is at a "crossroads," he said, saying the country faced an "existential question" about its future existence.
His remarks came as Pakistan's army launched this week an offensive to reassert control in the north-west of the country. They were the latest expression of international concern about the situation in Pakistan, led by the United States which last week accused Pakistan's government of "abdicating" to the Taliban by agreeing to Islamic law in parts of the country.
The Swat agreement "has a world-wide resonance," said Lellouche who met President Asif Zardari and army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani during his visit to the Pakistani capital. He said he did wish to be "alarmist" but there was a risk of a "Talibanisation" of Pakistan and that the civilian government could lose control of the country.
"The Talibinisation has begun," said Lellouche, who held talks with senior Indian officials during his stopover here to discuss the regional situation before returning to France. In a letter of appointment for Lellouche, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told him he had a free hand to propose "any initiative that you consider useful" for France's interests. France is the fourth largest contributor to the 70,000-strong US and Nato force deployed in Afghanistan.
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