US President Obama has indicated he would order an Abbottabad type operation if another militant leader was found in Pakistan.
He said the US was mindful of sovereignty issue but said that the US could not allow “active plans to come to fruition without us taking some action”.
He was speaking to the BBC ahead of a European visit.
Asked what he would do if one of al-Qaeda’s top leaders, or the Taliban leader Mullah Omar, was tracked down to a location in Pakistan or another sovereign territory, he said the US would take unilateral action if required.
“Our job is to secure the United States,” Obama said. “We are very respectful of the sovereignty of Pakistan. But we cannot allow someone who is actively planning to kill our people or our allies’ people,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr during a wide-ranging interview.
“We can’t allow those kind of active plans to come to fruition without us taking some action.”
On Afghanistan, Mr Obama said that while the conflict could not be solved militarily, raising troop levels had put the Taliban “back on its heels” in a way that could facilitate the brokering of a political reconciliation.
“Ultimately it means talking to the Taliban,” he said, adding that the “Taliban would have to cut all ties to al-Qaeda, renounce violence and they would have to respect the Afghan constitution”.
US would act unilaterally again inside Pakistan: Obama
