WASHINGTON: Gloves are off as US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta threatened to take “operational steps” against Pakistan while the American military chief Admiral Mike Mullen accused the ISI of having used its “veritable arm” for attacking the US Embassy in Kabul.

Weeks of incessant pressure on Pakistan to undo the Haqqani network, which also brought the ISI chief to Washington on Tuesday, led to the final showdown on Thursday at a Senate hearing where Admiral Mullen also blamed Islamabad for jeopardising a strategic partnership with the United States.

“I don’t think it would be helpful to describe what those options would look like and talk about what operational steps we may or may not take,” Secretary Panetta told the Senate Committee on Armed Services when asked what actions could the US take against Pakistan if it failed to curb the Haqqani network.“Are Pakistani leaders aware of what options are open to us so that they’re not caught by any surprise if in fact we take steps against that network?” asked the committee’s chairman Senator Carl Levin.

“I don’t think they would be surprised by the actions that we might or might not take,” said Mr Panetta while noting that US leaders had recently had a series of meetings with Pakistani leaders on the issue.

Admiral Mullen, who in previous congressional hearings had defended Pakistan, joined Mr Panetta, indicating that all US leaders were united in backing a possible punitive action against the country should it fail to act against the Haqqani network.

“The Haqqani network, for one, acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan’s internal services intelligence agency. With ISI support, the Haqqani operatives planned and conducted that truck bomb attack, as well as the assault on our embassy,” he told the committee.

“We also have credible intelligence that they were behind the June 28th attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul and a host of other smaller, but effective operations.”

The scene for the showdown was set by Senator Levin who, in his opening remarks, described cross-border attacks from Fata as “the foremost threat” to the US and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

The Haqqani group, he said, was operating from North Waziristan and the Afghan Taliban Shura from Quetta.

“I was glad to read a few days ago that Pakistan’s leaders have been personally informed that we are in fact going to… act more directly,” he said, informing the committee that he had repeatedly written to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to have the Haqqani group added to the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organisations.

Senator Levin visited Pakistan in August with a Senate delegation for talks on this and other issues.

“In our discussions with Pakistani officials, we heard the same excuses that we’ve heard before about why Pakistan forces are unable, for whatever reason, to go after the Haqqanis in Northern Waziristan,” he said.

He said that when I pressed Prime Minister Gilani on why Pakistan had not publicly condemned the deadly cross-border attack on US troops by the Haqqanis and by the Afghan Taliban, he was unable to provide an answer.

“And it is simply unacceptable … because of providing that safe haven and because of connections between Pakistan intelligence and the Haqqanis; Pakistan bears some responsibility for the attacks on us.”

Senator John McCain, the senior Republican member of the committee, said described the Haqqani network’s attacks into Afghanistan as “the fundamental reality from which we must proceed in re-evaluating our policy towards Pakistan”.

But Senator McCain also urged US lawmakers to recognise that abandoning Pakistan was not the answer.

“We tried that once. We cut off US assistance to Pakistan in the past and the problem got worse, not better. I say this with all humility, not recognising just yet what a better alternative approach would be,” he said.

In his opening statement, Secretary Panetta said the continuing presence of safe havens in Pakistan gave the insurgents advantages they had lost elsewhere in Afghanistan.

But the biggest shock – at least for Pakistani journalists covering the proceedings – came when Admiral Mullen directly blamed the ISI for orchestrating attacks on US targets inside Afghanistan.

“No less worrisome challenge we face is the impunity with which certain extremist groups are allowed to operate from Pakistani soil,” he said.

“In choosing to use violent extremism as an instrument of policy, the government of Pakistan and most especially the Pakistani Army and ISI, jeopardises not only the prospect of our strategic partnership, but Pakistan’s opportunity to be a respected nation with legitimate, regional influence,” he said.

“They may believe that by using these proxies they are hedging their bets, or redressing what they feel is an imbalance in regional power. But in reality they have already lost that bet,” said the admiral.

“By exporting violence, they have eroded their internal security and their position in the region. They have undermined their international credibility and threatened their economic wellbeing.”

The US military advised Pakistani leaders that only a decision to break with this policy can pave the road to a positive future for Pakistan.

“I’ve expended enormous energy on this relationship. I’ve met with Gen Kayani more than two-dozen times, including a two and a half hour meeting last weekend in Spain,” he recalled.

“I’ve done this because I believe in the importance of Pakistan to the region. Because I believe that we share a common interest against terrorism and because I recognise the great political and economic difficulties Pakistan faces.”

Admiral Mullen said he had also done this because he believed a flawed and difficult relationship was better than no relationship at all.

“Some may argue I’ve wasted my time, that Pakistan is no closer to us than before and may now have drifted even further away. I disagree. Military cooperation again is warming. Information flow between us and across the border is quickening. Transparency is returning, slowly,” said the US military chief while defending his contacts with his Pakistani counterpart.

“Indeed I think we would be in a far tougher situation in the wake of the frostiness which fell over us after the Bin Laden raid, where it not for the ground work Gen Kayani and I have laid,” he said. “Were it not for the fact that we could at least have a conversation about the way ahead, however difficult that conversation might be.”

Admiral Mullen urged US lawmakers to help create more stakeholders in Pakistan’s prosperity, help the Pakistani people address their economic, political and internal security challenges and promote Indian-Pakistani cooperation on the basis of true sovereign equality.

“It can’t just always be about counter-terrorism, not in the long run. Success in the region will require effort outside the realm of security.”

He also urged the US to help establish a reconciliation process internal to Afghanistan that provides for a redress of grievances and a state-to-state interaction between Afghanistan and Pakistan to resolve matters of mutual concern.

“And we must make clear to friends and enemies alike, that American presence and interest and commitment, are not defined by boots on the ground, but rather by persistent open and mutually beneficial engagement,” said the admiral.

When Senator Levin asked Secretary Panetta to underline the options the US had for dealing with Pakistan, the US defence chief said “I think the first order of business right now is to frankly put as much pressure on Pakistan as we can to deal with this issue from their side.”

Referring to Admiral Mullen’s meeting with General Kayani in Spain last week and Director CIA David Piraeus’s meeting with Gen. Shuja Pasha in Washington on Tuesday, Secretary Panetta said: “There has been a very clear message to them and to others that they must take steps to prevent this safe haven that the Haqqanis are using. We simply cannot allow these kinds of terrorists to be able to go into Afghanistan, attack our forces and then return to Pakistan for safe haven and not face any kind of pressure from the Pakistanis, for that that to stop.”