Washington:
The recent terrorist attacks in Pakistan including its army headquarters do not pose a threat to the country's nuclear arsenal, even though the United States remains watchful about it, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today.
"We don't think that those attacks pose a threat to the nuclear command and control or access," Clinton replied at the US Institute of Peace on a question about threat to Pakistan's nuclear arsenal in view of the recent attacks on the its army headquarters in Rawalpindi.
"But we have certainly... made our views known and asked a lot of questions and are supporting the Pakistani government in their courageous efforts against these extremists," Clinton said.
Noting that the Obama administration is concerned about the safety of Pakistan's nuclear weapons and nuclear proliferation through the A Q Khan network, Clinton said these are part of every engagement that the US has with Pakistan.
"We have been reassured about the security of the nuclear-weapons stockpiles and facilities," she said.
"But it is obviously a matter that we are watching very closely for reasons ...first, the continuing threat of proliferation... of course, the militant attack that we saw last week and the continuing organised attacks on government targets, including the military itself and the intelligence services, by Taliban, Al-Qaeda and related extremists," Clinton said.
Clinton said US plans to be aggressive with the Pakistan media.
"I think we have as a government not done a very good job in responding to what you rightly call propaganda, misinformation, even in some instances disinformation about our motivations and our actions in Pakistan," Clinton said.
Clinton said that Judith McHale, Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, is undertaking a very thorough analysis of what better can be done.
"We're going to be much more aggressive in interacting with the Pakistani media," Clinton said.
Noting that it is unfortunate that there is a lot of mistrust that has built up with respect to the US, Clinton said, "I think we saw that in some of the reaction on the Kerry-Lugar legislation, which we would been working on and consulting with the government of Pakistan for months.
"The passage of Kerry-Lugar bill was as a great milestone in US-Pak relationship, and Obama administration was very concerned when the reaction to it was so volatile and negative.