WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- The United States is on "final formal review" on designating the Haqqani Network as a terrorist organization, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.
Appearing before reporters after her meeting with the Egyptian foreign minister, Clinton was asked about designating the entire Haqqani Network on the terror list and about recent remarks to the Senate by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joints Chiefs of Staff, that the network is a "veritable arm" of ISI, Pakistan's spy agency.
On the network, Clinton said, "we are in the final formal review that has to be undertaken to make a government-wide decision to designate the network as a Foreign Terrorist Organization," although some of its key leaders already have been so designated.
"So we're going to continue to struggle against terrorism, and in particular against those who have taken up safe havens inside Pakistan. And we're going to continue to work with our Pakistani counterparts to try to root them out and prevent them from attacking Pakistanis, Americans, Afghans, or anyone else," Clinton said.
About Mullen's remarks, the secretary said she had "a very long meeting" last week with Pakistan's foreign minister at which she "discussed the urgency in the wake of the (Sept. 13) attack on our Embassy in Kabul" to confront the Haqqani Network threat.
Saying the United States is "committed to working with Pakistan," Clinton said "you will see a lot of work taking place as we try to determine how best to confront this mutual threat."
