Pakistan Threatens U.S.: You Will Lose an Ally

Pakistan on Friday warned the United States that it could lose Islamabad as an ally if public accusations continue over its alleged involvement in major attacks against U.S. targets in Afghanistan.

"We have also conveyed this to the United States, that you will lose an ally. You cannot afford to alienate Pakistan. You cannot afford to alienate the Pakistani people," Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told private Geo TV.

"If you are choosing to do so, and if they are choosing to do so, it will be at their own cost," she said.

Khar, who became foreign minister only two months ago and has attracted wide attention for her relative youth and stylish dressing, condemned the allegations, which she said were "not in the spirit of partnership.”

"Anything which is said about an ally, about a partner publicly to recriminate it, to humiliate it is not acceptable," she told the Pakistani station in New York, where has been attending the U.N. General Assembly.

"Our citizens should be clear in their understanding that our country is not military or economically dependent on the United States," she added.

Khar spoke after the U.S. military's top officer accused Pakistan of "exporting" violent extremism to Afghanistan through proxies and warned of possible action to protect American troops.

Admiral Mike Mullen called the al-Qaida-linked Haqqani network a "veritable arm" of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency.”

He accused the Haqqanis -- with ISI backing -- of this month's truck bombing on a NATO base in Afghanistan that wounded 77 Americans; a 19-hour siege on the U.S. embassy in Kabul; and a June attack on the InterContinental hotel in Kabul.