WASHINGTON - Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has a point when he says that Afghanistan has to deal with its own problems instead of blaming Islamabad for them, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said. In an interview with Fox News, when asked to comment on Kayani's recent statement that instead of blaming Pakistan for all its problems, Afghanistan should try to deal with them first, Clinton appeared sympathetic to Islamabad's position on this issue.

"I think that he is saying it because, to some extent, Pakistan does believe that Afghanistan has to deal with its own problems and that they have problems," the Dawn quoted Clinton, as saying during the interview.
"I mean, if you're sitting on the Pakistani side of the border, you say, 'Look, we've lost 30,000 people to terrorism in the last 10 years, so we know what it's like. We're trying to deal with the many different forces at work in our society, so don't blame us for all your problems'," she added.

Her comments follow US media reports that the Obama administration is warming up to Islamabad's idea for holding direct talks with FATA-based Afghan militants.

"Nobody would be fair to say that all of either problems are anybody else's fault. There do have to be decisions made in both Pakistan and Afghanistan to strengthen democracy and democratic institutions to deal with the security challenges," Clinton said during the interview.

She said that the United States is asking the Pakistanis to step up their cooperation in shutting down the safe havens because "it's very hard to have a successful military campaign if the people you are seeking are constantly moving back across the border". (ANI)