Washington, Sept 17(ANI): Unilateral action in Pakistan cannot be ruled out because the United States needs to keep all its options open to safeguard its national security interests, House Intelligence Committee Chairman and Republican Congressman Mike Rogers has said.
Addressing an event held by a conservative think tank, The American Enterprise Institute, Rogers said that unilateral action should not be taken off the table when it comes to US national security interests.
"An example of that would be the Osama Bin Laden raid. I'm not saying that's going to happen again, but I'm just saying that you cannot take it off the table, you cannot tell them that no, we won't ever do that again," The Express Tribune quoted Rogers, as saying.
"We should do what keeps American's national security interests alive and well, we hope we don't have to get to do that, we'd like them to be better partners, but at the end of the day we need to keep all of our options open," he added.
Rogers stressed on the importance of engagement with Pakistan, and criticised the Congress for threatening to cut off aid to Islamabad.
"If we don't engage in Pakistan, I guarantee you, it will get worse," he said, adding that the relationship with Pakistan is one that the US cannot walk away from.
Citing the oft-repeated cliche that Pakistan is an army with a country, Rogers expressed concern over his assessment that the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Pakistan Army were far more powerful than the civilian institutions in the country, and said that the latter must be strengthened.
He also said that Pakistan needed to realize that there was no such thing as a good terrorist, adding that this realisation would help improve relations between both countries. (ANI)
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