US President Barack Obama pledged a “lasting commitment” to the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan and said his meeting Wednesday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was “extraordinarily productive.” Obama spoke after holding a face-to-face meeting with both leaders at once. He also met separately with them. “I'm pleased that these two men, elected leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, fully appreciate the seriousness of the threats that we face and have reaffirmed their commitment to confronting it,” Obama said at a White House press briefing with Zardari and Karzai. “The road ahead will be difficult,” Obama said. “There will be more violence and there will be setbacks. But let me be clear. The United States has made a lasting commitment to defeat Al-Qaeda but also to support the democratically elected, sovereign governments of both Pakistan and Afghanistan. That commitment will not waver, and that support will be sustained.” Amid lingering tensions among all three nations, Obama stressed that the US interest in the neighboring countries lies not only in joining them in the fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taleban but in supporting their respective prosperity and security. He said he hopes the countries will someday be linked by a “shared peace” rather than a “common enemy.” Karzai and Zardari met with US officials separately and together, first at the State Department and then at the White House. Looming over the sessions was a bombing on Monday in Afghanistan that officials there said killed dozens of civilians and for which the Obama administration apologized.
