Hillary: Pak nukes safe

London
Oct. 11: The United States is confident about Pakistan’s control over its nuclear arsenal, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said in a joint press conference with her British counterpart David Miliband in London on Sunday.
“We have confidence in the Pakistani government and military’s control over its nuclear weapons,” Ms Clinton said.
The recent attack at Rawalpindi at the Army headquarters was an example of threat to the authority of the Pakistani state, Ms Clinton said.
Although the “extremists are threatening the authority of the state,” Ms Clinton said that “we see no evidence they are going to take over the state. They will cause a great deal of harm to the people of Pakistan which is why the Pakistani government and the military is going after them so aggressively.”
Mr Miliband, who held wide-ranging talks with Ms Clinton on issues like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Northern Ireland and Iran, also supported her contention. There was no threat of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons being seized by terrorists, he said.
“There’s no evidence that’s been shown publicly or privately of any threat to the Pakistani nuclear facilities. I think it’s very important that alarmist talk is not allowed to gather pace,” Mr Miliband added.
Ms Clinton also held talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown later on Sunday. They met at Chequers, the Premier’s country retreat outside London.
The United States secretary of state also made it clear that it had a strong “special relationship” with Britain. “I have a special personal relationship with the Prime Minister and of course I think it can’t be said often enough, we have a special relationship between our countries.”
Ms Clinton, who was due to visit Ireland after her short London visit on Sunday, said that militants behind a resurgence of violence in Northern Ireland “are out of step and out of time.”
“To me terrorism is terrorism. Those who would try to disrupt the peace of people going about their daily lives are out of step and out of time,” she said.
Source::DC