Nato 'concerned' over Pakistan

By Rob Watson
Defence correspondent, BBC News

Gen Craddock says that Nato is making progress against the Taleban

Nato's most senior military commander has expressed concern about deals between the Pakistani government and militants in Pakistan's tribal areas.

In a BBC interview, Nato's supreme commander, Gen John Craddock, said he feared such deals could help Taleban militants in neighbouring Afghanistan.

But Gen Craddock said that the Taleban were also weaker than three years ago.

The US and other Western countries have also expressed concern about the deals with militants near the Afghan border.

Cautiously optimistic

The west is worried that if such agreements lead to the wholesale withdrawal of the Pakistani military from the tribal areas, militants will have even more freedom to slip across the border into Afghanistan.

Gen Craddock said that while he did not know the detail of such deals, he remained sceptical.

"Uncontrolled spaces are where the terrorists have been congregating for years," he said.

"We know that if there is control by the people or by the government in Islamabad, that would be a good thing."

Despite expressing concerns about the Taleban finding even greater sanctuary than they already enjoyed in Pakistan, Gen Craddock was cautiously optimistic.

He said the Taleban were weaker than they had been, thanks to the losses inflicted on them by Nato forces in Afghanistan and because of the improvement in Afghanistan's own security forces.

But he acknowledged that that did not mean an end to insurgent attacks.

"On the downside I think we are going to continue to see more indiscriminate terrorist attacks - irregular warfare - because the opposing militant forces realise that with the capability of Nato forces they cannot go toe-to-toe."

Gen Craddock stressed that the Taleban could only be defeated in the long term by better governance and more development in Afghanistan, rather than through purely military means.