Clinton doubts Pakistan on al-Qaeda



Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has questioned Pakistan's commitment to the fight against al-Qaeda, saying she found it hard to believe that no-one in the government knows where senior figures are hiding. "I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to," she told a group of newspaper editors during a meeting in the city of Lahore on Thursday. "Maybe that's the case. Maybe they're not gettable. I don't know." Top al-Qaeda leaders are widely believed to be holed up in a remote mountainous region along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. Clinton said that al-Qaeda had enjoyed a "safe haven" in Pakistan since 2002. Clinton is on a three-day visit to Pakistan, where one of her principle objectives is to tackle the anti-American sentiment which is said to be undermining its allies in the Pakistani government. "I am more than willing to hear every complaint about the United States," Clinton said. "But this is a two-way street. If we are going to have a mature partnership where we work together" then "there are issues that not just the United States but others have with your government and with your military security establishment." Clinton was keen to hail the US relationship with Pakistan. "What we have together is far greater than what divided us," she told students at Lahore University, referring to her relations with Barack Obama, the US president. "And that is what I feel about the United States and Pakistan."

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