Washington, Sept. 11 (ANI): Days after the Obama administration designated the Pakistan based Haqqani network as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation, the U.S. has hinted that it is still undecided about placing the Taliban on its list of foreign terrorist groups.
"We do very intensive analysis before we designate someone as a foreign terrorist organisation, and I think I'll let the designation speak for itself. We have reached that conclusion about the Haqqani Network and we think it's the right decision," The Nation quoted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as saying.
Clinton also denied that the blacklisting of the Haqqani network was about sending a message to Pakistan that it was not doing enough. The U.S. had been pressing Pakistan to launch an action in North Waziristan to target militants of the Haqqani network.
"No, it is about squeezing the Haqqanis. It's part of the continuing effort to try to send a message to them - not to anyone else, but to them - because of the really incredibly damaging attacks they have waged against us, against other targets inside Afghanistan, and it's important that we use every tool at our disposal to go after them," Clinton said.
Adding the Haqqanis to the group blacklist "gives us much greater reach into any financial assets or fundraising that they may engage in, it gives us better knowledge about assets that they might own," she added.
Opponents of blacklisting the Haqqanis had argued that slapping them with a label might hinder prospects for engaging them in reconciliation talks to take them off the battlefield. The same may be said of the Taliban.
The U.S. is seeking to engage the Taliban in negotiations to renounce violence and accept the Afghan Constitution to better the chances of peace following the planned withdrawal of U.S. combat troops in 2014. (ANI)
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