Obama says Pakistan recognizing need to act against extremists; a ‘cancer in their midst’
By APWednesday, May 12, 2010
Obama: Pakistan more willing to move on extremists
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says he’s seeing a growing recognition among Pakistan’s leaders that the extremist groups who are based there represent what Obama calls a “cancer in their midst.”
Obama says Pakistani leaders are recognizing that the groups that are using Pakistan’s frontier as a base are threatening Pakistan’s sovereignty.
After a meeting at the White House Wednesday with Afghanistan’s visiting president, Hamid Karzai (HAH’-mihd KAR’-zeye), Obama said it will take time for Pakistan to assert control in border areas that have been “loosely governed” until now. He says Pakistani authorities are starting to do that, but that it’s “not going to happen overnight.”
He says U.S. and Afghan officials have been emphasizing to Pakistani leaders that the security of all three countries is “intertwined.”
Tags: Afghanistan, Asia, Central Asia, North America, Pakistan, South Asia, United States, Washington
