Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States Sherry Rehman told a key US senator that Islamabad is taking comprehensive steps to curb the flow of improvised explosive devices, saying the IEDs pose threat to both countries.
Ambassador Rehman held a meeting with Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr. a Democrat from Pennsylvania, and a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, to discuss cooperative relations between the two countries.
According to the Pakistani embassy, Ambassador Rehman briefed Senator Casey on the recent developments in Pakistan-US bilateral track, particularly in the context of addressing the improvised explosive device challenges that pose a common threat to Pakistan and the United States.
Ambassador shared with Senator the comprehensive steps taken by Pakistan to check the inflow of IED precursors into Afghanistan.
Senator Casey took note of the consistent efforts by Pakistani authorities to curtail the IED threats and assured the continued US assistance in enhancing Pakistan’s capability to deal with the common menace of IEDs.
“Matters of mutual interest including situation in Afghanistan and reconciliation process were also discussed.”
Earlier, the State Department said for it working to save the lives of US forces in Afghanistan by addressing the threats of IEDs has been and continues to be a critical priority in discussions with Pakistan.
“We’ve been clear that Pakistan, both the government and industry, must do more to prevent the flow of calcium ammonium nitrate into Afghanistan,” Acting Deputy spokesman Patrick Ventrell said.
“We agree with some of our DOD colleagues that there’s been some recent progress with Fatima and greater cooperation between that company and the government – and greater cooperation between us and the Government of Pakistan in this regard. But it’s something that we’ve been working on for some time. We’d like to see some further concrete action.”
