Taliban threat to world peace: US

July 2nd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Taliban is loosing support among the people of Pakistan, as about 80 percent of them are against the banned outfit and have termed it a threat for the country, a survey has revealed. According to a World Public Opinion (WPO) report, about 80 percent of the Pakistanis are against the Taliban.

July 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Most Pakistanis believe that the Taliban fighters are a "critical threat" to their country and support the ongoing offensive in the Swat valley, according to a survey. An overwhelming 87 percent of Pakistanis think that the Taliban, who are fighting to overthrow the Afghan government, should not be allowed to have bases in Pakistan, showed the poll by the World Public Opinon (WPO), a US-based organisation working on public opinion on international issues.

July 2nd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - About 80 percent of Pakistanis feel that Taliban is posing a "serious threat to the stability of Pakistan", a survey revealed. The survey carried out by World Public Opinion (WPO) showed that 68 percent of the respondents were satisfied with the ongoing military operation against Taliban in Swat Valley.

June 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Taliban operating in Pakistan pose a "real threat" to India, the region and the world, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said Thursday.

June 24th, 2009 BRUSSELS - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that India is no longer a military threat to Pakistan, rather it is the Taliban which is threatening peace in the region as well as in the whole world. Talking to a private television channel ahead of the first summit between the European Union (EU) and Pakistan here, Zardari said both India and Pakistan do not have any ill-feelings against each other, and both the countries have good intentions.

June 12th, 2009 LAHORE - The Kalash tribe which is considered to be the descendants of Alexander the Great's soldiers has lived peacefully in the Chitral region of Pakistan for hundreds of years without much interference, but the ever expanding writ of the Taliban is now threatening their years of peaceful autonomy. The Kalash region in Chitral has hardly felt the impact of the Taliban's expanding writ, but the fact that the Taliban has taken the neighbouring Dir district under its control is now being seen as threat to their way of life.

May 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - President Asif Ali Zardari has said he knew the Swat peace deal with the Taliban would not work, even as the Pakistan Army intensified its operation against the militant group in the troubled region. The Pakistani Army's advance in Swat marks the failure of Islamabad's boldest attempt yet to compromise with the Taliban.

May 6th, 2009 LONDON - Admitting that the Taliban pose an existential threat to his country, Pakistan High Commissioner to Britain, Wajid Shamsul Hasan has said that the outlawed outfit is a threat to the mankind as well, and there was an immediate need to eliminate it. Speaking in the House of Parliament, Hasan said the Taliban should not be compared with Islam.

May 2nd, 2009 KARACHI - A majority of Pakistani civilians are of the view that the presence of allied forces led by the United States poses a bigger threat to them rather than the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. According to an annual assessment report of Pakistan issued by an US think tank, Centre for American Progress, more Pakistanis consider US presence in Asia as a threat to their country.

April 30th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Taliban has said that the military operation in Buner is an attempt by the Pakistan government to pacify the United States. Spokesman of the Taliban's Swat chapter Muslim Khan said the Taliban would not retaliate to the ongoing military offensive, and it would abide by the peace accord it has inked with the provincial government.

April 30th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The United States has reiterated that there is an immediate need to dismantle the Taliban and Al-Qaeda safe havens in Pakistan for the safety of the US and the world. Addressing the Senate, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee for Middle-east and South Asia, Senator Tom Casey expressed concerns about the expanding writ of the Taliban in Pakistan.

April 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States, while welcoming the Pakistan military's offensive against the Taliban, has expressed hope that the operation would be sustained till the extremists are rooted out from the region. "The test of all of these Pakistani military operations, because we've seen them from time to time in the past, is always their sustainability," Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said.

April 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen is frustrated particularly by the Pakistani political leadership's inability to confront the extremist threat, and remains "very alarmed by the growing Taliban threat in the country," his spokesman has said. Mullen has made two visits to Pakistan in less than three weeks and is "deeply alarmed by what he has found," his spokesman, Captain John Kirby told CNN.

April 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The so called 'peace deal' between the government of Pakistan and the Taliban in the Swat Valley has brought Washington and Islamabad at loggerheads, with the United States considering that the accord would only provide an opportunity to the insurgents to build terror safe havens in Pakistan's heart. US diplomats see the peace accord of the Swat Valley, which is located just 60 miles away from Islamabad, as a threat to the region, and to the western world too.

April 23rd, 2009 TEL AVIV - Israel considers Pakistan as its biggest strategic threat rather than Iran. Expressing concern over the increasing Taliban threat in Pakistan, Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq were the three countries from which Israel faces an immediate threat.