Berlin, Apr. 9 : A key advisor to US President Barack Obama, Bruce Riedel, has said that Al-Qaeda's main motive is to render Pakistan a failed state as it is trying to paralyse the government and destabilize the country.

Riedel urged the international community to safeguard Pakistan's nuclear armaments from the reach of the Taliban, which is dangerously expanding its control over different regions in the country.

Highlighting the root cause of the ever increasing numbers of extremists, Riedel said most of the Taliban operatives took to violent means because of poverty and if this issue is tackled efficiently, the problem could be dwarfed.

"A considerable number of the Taliban are not hard-core committed Jihadis. They are in it for the money. If their momentum is broken, we will start to see a change in the cohesion of the Taliban by the end of the year," The News quoted Riedel, as saying. (ANI)