NEW YORK, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. could lose Pakistan as an ally if it doesn't back off charges that Islamabad is supporting Afghan insurgents, Pakistani foreign minister said.
Speaking to Geo News in New York, Hina Rabbani Khar was quoted as saying U.S. officials' accusations against her country and its intelligence agencies are unacceptable.
If they don't stop, Washington could lose its ally, she told the Pakistani news channel.
Khar said Pakistan is also facing such attacks but it never points fingers at others, and that its leaders only give mature statements.
Geo News quoted her as saying if the United States wants to lose Pakistan as its allied partner, her government is willing to pay that price.
Washington has warned it will be forced to act unilaterally if Pakistan doesn't go after the Haqqani terror network, which U.S. officials say enjoys safe haven in Pakistan's tribal areas from where it launches attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The network, seen as an asset of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, is suspected of being behind the Sept. 13 attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, and other recent incidents.
"The Haqqani network, for one, acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan's Internal Services Intelligence agency," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a U.S. Senate committee hearing. "With ISI support, the Haqqani operatives planned and conducted that truck bomb attack, as well as the assault on our embassy."
Pakistani Information and Broadcasting Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan Thursday told reporters the Haqqani network does not exist in Pakistan and that whoever has any such information should inform her government, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported.
