Washington: With footprints of the recent terror plots in the US being traced to Pakistan, President Barack Obama has said that al-Qaeda and Taliban continue to plot from the Af-Pak border region, a "safe haven" for terrorists.
Obama, who expressed his resolve to dismantle, disrupt and defeat the extremist network in the region, said that Afghanistan's efforts against the menace of terrorism will have an impact on the US and the entire world.
"As we've seen in recent plots here in the United States, al-Qaeda and its extremist allies continue to plot in the border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and a growing Taliban insurgency could mean an even larger safe haven for al-Qaeda and its affiliates," he said Wednesday night.
Warning that extremists pose a serious threat to Pakistan's sovereignty, Obama said Islamabad has realised that it is not India but the "cancer" of terrorism emanating from its own territory that is its primary concern.
"I think there has been in the past a view on the part of Pakistan that their primary rival, India, was their only concern," Obama said at a joint press conference with visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai here Wednesday night.
"I think what you've seen over the last several months is a growing recognition that they have a cancer in their midst; that the extremist organisations that have been allowed to congregate and use as a base the frontier areas to then go into Afghanistan -- that now threatens Pakistan's sovereignty," Obama said in response to a question.
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