Pak nukes safe but a matter of concern: Nato

KABUL: The head of Nato said on Tuesday he was confident Pakistan’s nuclear weapons were safe, but admitted that security had become a matter of concern the day after the worst assault on a Pakistani military base in two years. Anders Fogh Rasmussen was in Afghanistan on a one-day visit and met President Hamid Karzai to discuss the transition of security from Nato-led troops to Afghan security forces, which is due to begin in July. Rasmussen was asked if Nato was concerned about Pakistan’s nuclear weapons after it took Pakistani forces 17 hours to reclaim control of a naval air base from Taliban attackers. “I feel confident that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is safe and well protected,” said Rasmussen. “But of course it is a matter of concern and we are following the situation closely.” — AFP Reuters: Meanwhile, Rasmussen said Nato will protect its troops and Afghans from militants based across the border in Pakistan. President Barack Obama’s aides are divided between a “hug them” or “hit them” approach to dealing with Pakistan, where anger at the May 2 US attack on Pakistani soil is matched in Washington by angry questions about Islamabad’s ties to militants. “It is well known that there is cross-border activity and it is a problem and a security challenge,” Nato Secretary-General Rasmussen told reporters in Kabul after talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. “We will take all necessary measures to protect the Afghan people and our own troops,” he said of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), whose war against the Taliban in Afghanistan has dragged on for 10 years. Pakistani officials are furious at the bin Laden raid, saying his killing was a violation of its sovereignty. Islamabad is now under intense US pressure to explain how bin Laden lived undetected in a garrison town not far from the capital, by some accounts for more than five years. Karzai called on Pakistan for help “to cooperate with us seriously and by all means, in order to eliminate terrorism and its training bases”. Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, in Kabul on Tuesday ahead of the latest round of trilateral talks with the United States, stressed Afghan peace plans “can only be settled by Afghans.” Trilateral talks between Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States, aimed at fostering stability, were last held in Islamabad a day after bin Laden’s death and will be held on Wednesday in Kabul