Panetta: US ‘reaching limits of our patience’ with Pakistan

By Jeremy Herb - 06/07/12 09:56 AM ET

Arriving in Afghanistan on Thursday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the United States is “reaching the limits of our patience” with Pakistan over militant groups using Pakistan as a safe haven.

Panetta’s comments amplified his tough talk regarding Pakistan during his trip to Asia, continuing a line of criticism he used while speaking in India on Wednesday, when he said the United States was “at war in the FATA [Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas].”

At a news conference with Afghan Defense Minster Abdul Rahim Wardak on Thursday, Panetta laid out U.S. concerns that the Haqqani network uses Pakistan as a safe haven for attacks on Afghanistan and called on Pakistan to do more to stop them, according to The Associated Press.

“It is an increasing concern that the safe haven exists and that there are those — likely Haqqanis — who are making use of that to attack our forces," Panetta said.

"We are reaching the limits of our patience here, and for that reason it is extremely important that Pakistan take action to prevent this kind of safe haven from taking place and allowing terrorists to use their country as a safety net in order to conduct their attacks on our forces," he said.

The Haqqanis operating out of Pakistan is one of the major concerns that NATO forces have as they draw down and hand off security control to the Afghans in 2014.

The militant group, which lawmakers are pushing the Obama administration to label a terrorist organization, has been one source of frustration in deteriorating U.S.-Pakistani relations.

Washington and Islamabad are still negotiating to reopen supply routes into Afghanistan, which Pakistan closed last year after 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed by NATO troops on the Afghan-Pakistani border.

Panetta has repeatedly given Pakistan a tongue-lashing on his weeklong trip through Asia, urging Pakistan to do more about terrorists and defending U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan — another area of U.S.-Pakistani tension. Panetta said Wednesday that drone strikes against terrorists in Pakistan would continue.

Panetta is in Afghanistan for the fourth time as Defense secretary. He’s on the trip to speak with Afghanistan commander Gen. John Allen and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, and said he’s there to assess the threats from the Taliban and Haqqanis.