Friday, February 12, 2010Pakistan is my biggest worry: Biden
WASHINGTON: US Vice President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that his greatest concern was not Afghanistan, not Iraq, nor the Iranian nuclear crisis, but Pakistan.
“I think it’s a big country. It has nuclear weapons that are able to be deployed. It has a real significant minority of radicalised population,” said Biden said in an interview with CNN. “It is not a completely functional democracy in the sense we think about it, and so that’s my greatest concern.”
President Barack Obama’s administration has called on Pakistan to see greater urgency in the fight against extremism as the US pours thousands more troops into Afghanistan to fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
US officials have long been concerned that elements in the Pakistani establishment support extremists, despite the nation’s offensives against Taliban strongholds. They have urged Pakistan to expand its offensive against militants to North Waziristan.
Biden said Al Qaeda was moving in the direction of smaller but “devastatingly frightening” attacks, and he viewed the chance of another September 11-style mass assault as unlikely.
Biden – who was the chairman or ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the decade before becoming vice president – said Iran’s nuclear programme was a “real concern”.
“If they continue on the path of nuclear weapons and were able to gain even a modicum of the capability, then I worry what that does ... what pressure that puts on Saudi Arabia, on Egypt, on Turkey. ... to acquire nuclear weapons, that’s very destabilising,” he said.
Although US intelligence chiefs testified before a congressional panel recently that new Al Qaeda-backed attacks were certain in the coming months, Biden said he thought any attempt would be small-scale.
“If you see what’s happening, particularly with Al Qaeda and the Arabian Peninsula, they have decided to move in the direction of much more small bore but devastatingly frightening attacks,” said Biden. agencies
