TENSIONS

Pakistan Threatens U.S.

Foreign minister warns, “You will lose an ally.”

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has responded harshly to the United States’ accusation that Pakistan’s top spy agency was closely tied to a Taliban-allied network in Afghanistan. She warned that already-tense relations would combust if the U.S. continued to blame Islamabad for playing two sides in the war against militancy. “You will lose an ally,” she told Geo TV in New York, which was broadcast on Friday. The U.S. deemed the militant Haqqani network responsible for Tuesday’s attacks on the U.S. embassy and other targets in Kabul, claiming the terrorist network was aided by Pakistan’s military intelligence. In her broadcast-TV address, Khar told the U.S., “You cannot afford to alienate Pakistan, you cannot afford to alienate the Pakistani people.” While a complete breakdown between the two countries seems unlikely, because Washington depends on the Middle Eastern country for supply routes to troops fighting militants in Afghanistan, fragile relations have reached a new low since the U.S. Navy SEALs raid on Osama bin Laden in May.