NR: "...intense pressure back home in Pakistan..."


Length: 1:23

LARGE (16.2 MB) ----- SMALL (1.7 MB)


A second recording of the update used on Saturday Morning.



MICHAEL WARE, INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: The Obama administration has expressed its first reaction to the Pakistan military's offer to help broker talks between Washington and the Afghan Taliban leadership.

President Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, said it was not surprising that the Pakistan military was able to talk to the Taliban. However, he did describe their disclosure of the fact as a positive development.

RICHARD HOLBROOKE, SPECIAL ENVOY TO PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN: And there have been long allegations that there are continued contacts, and I think it's a step forward for the Pakistanis to say publicly what everyone has always assumed.

WARE: But under what some Pakistani military officers described as "intense pressure" back home in Pakistan following the revelations that the military was still talking with the Taliban, Pakistan military headquarters in Rawalpindi issued a statement denying the remarks attributed to its official spokesman as "baseless, fabricated, and taken out of context," even though those remarks were made on camera.

Nonetheless, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke says he will privately take up this issue with the government of Pakistan when he visits Islamabad in coming weeks.

Michael Ware, CNN.