WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is considering a Congressional demand to designate the Haqqani network a terrorist organisation, her spokesperson said, while assuring that the process to determine whether the militant group falls into that category would be completed within 30 days. “We share the grave concern of the Congress with regard to the activities of the Haqqani network,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters at the daily press briefing.
Clinton has to meet the 30-day deadline for completion of review process as stipulated under the Haqqani Network Terrorist Organisation Act 2012, signed last week by President Barack Obama on the advice of US Congress. Responding to questions, the spokesperson said “We have both State and Treasury designated a number of individuals within the network. As you said, the President has signed the piece of legislation, the Haqqani Network Terrorist Designation Act of 2012. He signed it last Friday. “The act gives the Secretary 30 days to report on the Haqqani network, so that clock has just started ticking, and we’ll let you know when we have something to say,” she said. But this does not mean that Haqqani network would be designated as a foreign terrorist organisation within these 30 days, she clarified.
“She has a reporting requirement to Congress, and I’m confident she won’t miss a reporting requirement to Congress,” she said.
“We have grave concerns about the threat that they pose inside Pakistan and the threat that they pose across the border,” Nuland said. The question of whether to designate the entire Haqqani organisation is something that the US has been looking at for some time, and no decision has been made, Nuland said.
“She owes Congress now, within 30 days of last Friday, a report as to whether they meet the criteria. Now you can obviously see a relationship between these two things, but the expectation is that she’ll meet the deadline in making the report,” she said.
“Congress is expecting her to give them a report as to whether they meet the criteria. The expectation is that she will give that report. That is a separate and distinct matter from whether, either in coordination with this or separately, she makes a decision about designation and when she might do that,” Nuland said.
Responding to a question, the spokesperson said the US was seeking a coordinated action involving Pakistan, Afghanistan and ISAF against Haqqani network.
“We want to see a coordinated effort on both sides of the border to squeeze the Haqqani network, that we want to see Afghanistan and Pakistan work together with us, work together with ISAF to maximise our ability to deal with the threat that they pose. And we are continuing to work on both sides of the border on that issue,” she added.