WASHINGTON, Feb 9: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton opted for a special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan after having witnessed the bad blood between the countries’ leaders, she said in an interview released on Monday.

In the interview with the New York Times, Ms Clinton said she knew immediately that Richard Holbrooke, the architect of the 1995 Bosnia peace pact, was right for the job when President Barack Obama approached her to be the chief US diplomat.

In 2007, on a visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan as a senator, Ms Clinton said she and fellow legislators saw the tension between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pervez Musharraf, who was Pakistan’s president at the time.

“And it was clear to me that there was a great deal of animosity that could lead to problems between them, and with us as well, in what we were attempting to do,” she said in the interview released by the State Department.

“I had a long conversation with both President Karzai and President Musharraf, where each complained at length about the other, and it raised alarm bells in my mind,” Ms Clinton recalled.

Ms Clinton said that upon returning to Washington she urged the White House to consider appointing an envoy to “interact with the leaders in the two countries,” but the idea was never taken up.

When Mr Obama approached her to become secretary of state after he won the presidential election in November, Ms Clinton said she recommended the idea of the special envoy and for Mr Holbrooke to fill the position.

“Richard (Holbrooke) represents the kind of robust, persistent, determined diplomacy that the president intends to pursue, and that I’m honoured to help him fulfil,” she said.

The secretary said she admired deeply Mr Holbrooke’s “ability to shoulder the most vexing and difficult challenges” while he served in the administration of her husband, president Bill Clinton.

“And he does bring relentless focus and energy. He can wear you out, but it is necessary to keep everybody, you know, on point about what we’re trying to achieve,” she said.—AFP