US President George W. Bush has questioned the possibility of conducting a military operation in Pakistan against the terrorist group Al-Qaeda, whose leaders are believed to be hiding in the country's inaccessible mountainous regions on the border with Afghanistan.

According to the American president, such an operation is “unsafe.” In addition, George Bush emphasized that his country respects the sovereignty of Pakistan. The American president's comments were made during a telephone conversation with his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf, Reuters reports .

A statement from the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, which conveyed the contents of the conversation between the two presidents, said that “President George W. Bush and the United States declared full respect for the sovereignty of Pakistan and expressed gratitude for its fight against Al-Qaeda and other terrorist elements.”

As the Foreign Ministry of Pakistan reported, George W. Bush noted that “statements about the possible use of force by the American military in Pakistan are also unsafe; they are dictated by the political situation and the election situation in the United States.”

Bush's comments followed a statement by US presidential candidate Barack Obama, who promised to send American troops to Pakistan if elected to the presidency.

According to B. Obama, Pakistani President P. Musharraf is not making enough efforts to combat terrorism. If this is not corrected, the candidate said, the United States should suspend financial aid to Pakistan and send troops to fight the international terrorist network al-Qaeda, which has significant forces holed up in the country.

In his speech, Barack Obama also criticized the foreign policy of current US President George W. Bush. According to him, since September 11, 2001. The United States has become an even more vulnerable target for terrorists because of the war in Iraq, which should not have been started.

Note that at the end of July this year. US Presidential Adviser on Homeland Security Frances Townsend said that Washington does not rule out the possibility of using military force in Pakistan to combat the growing influence of the Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda there. And in mid-July this year. A report by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was published, according to which al-Qaeda is active in northern Pakistan.

The international community is alarmed by the current situation in Pakistan mainly because Islamabad possesses nuclear weapons, which al-Qaeda is seeking access to. According to American intelligence, Osama bin Laden is hiding in the mountainous regions on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the jurisdiction of Kabul and Islamabad is nominal, and real power belongs to the elders of local tribes.

George Bush stood up for Pakistan before US presidential candidate