US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar both stated a desire for a peaceful and stable Afghanistan and agreed that extremists must be dealt with on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Secretary Clinton called the talks “serious in depth discussions” that reflected the urgency of the issues before the two countries.  

“And these are issues that we feel are important for us to address together. The Afghan peace process, reconciliation, how do we do it, how do we make it work. The Haqqani network, how do we prevent them from wreaking havoc across the border and - in the words of both Pakistanis and Americans - squeeze them to prevent them from planning and executing attacks,” Clinton said.

American authorities have long pushed Pakistan to crack down on the Haqqani network in their safe havens in the North Waziristan tribal area near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

Pakistani authorities say they are already stretched thin fighting extremists elsewhere to launch a new operation against the Haqqanis.

VOA