Extremist forces threaten the very existence of Pakistan, the incoming US commander in the region warned Thursday, as tension mounted between Nato and Pakistani forces on the Afghan frontier. General David Petraeus, who will take charge of US forces in south-west Asia and the Middle East next month, told reporters that Pakistani and US-led troops would have to work together to defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda.
"Pakistan faces a threat that certainly seems to be an existential threat," he said, at a press conference at the US embassy in Paris. Petraeus described the common enemy as a "syndicate" uniting "some true al Qaeda, some Taliban and in between different forms of extremist movements, which are very much contributing to the problem in Afghanistan."
The general was speaking shortly after it was confirmed that Pakistani forces had fired warning shots at US military helicopters operating under Nato command near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. Petraeus said he had yet to be briefed on the incident in which the helicopters were fired upon, and refused to be drawn on the circumstances in which he would order a cross-border operation. Instead, he insisted that he would work in co-operation with the Pakistani military, which he said faced the same threat."I think the only real answer that I can give you at a forum like this is just to say that there has to be co-ordination, co-operation and very constructive dialogue as that effort goes forward," he said.
"As was shown tragically and horrifically in the Marriott Hotel bombing, these same extremist elements again represent a true existential threat to Pakistan itself," he said, referring to an attack on Saturday in Islamabad.