In a latest development the
United States has ruled out quick talks with the Afghan Taliban following a wave
of bloody large-scale attacks in Kabul on a military academy, on an Afghan army
battalion and on the Hotel Pearl Continental which killed over 200 people.
Though the Afghan Taliban and Daesh have claimed the responsibility of the blood
attacks, yet the Afghan government is, directly and indirectly, blaming Pakistan
“for providing sanctuaries and safe havens to the terrorists who are conducting
attacks in Kabul.
Andre Vitchek, a war correspondent who was in Kabul, painted in his recent
article “Is Kabul falling?” a gory picture of the Afghan capital, saying
“Afghanistan is now facing mortal danger. It has to survive but it is not clear
how it can manage.” Afghan President Ashraf Ghani recently gave an interview to
a foreign journalist and in utter dismay said the Afghan capital can fall in
three days and the Afghan National Army might collapse in six months’ time if
the USA left Afghanistan. Former President Hamid Karzai in a tweet accused “a
foreign country” of harbouring the terrorists who are attacking in Kabul. He
asked for immediate action against “that country.”
In most blatant and glaring accusation, the Afghanistan’s Ambassador and
Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Mahmoud Saikal said on Monday
that Pakistan Army is supplying military equipment to LeT, Taliban and the
terrorist involved in Kabul hotel attack was trained in Balochistan. Pakistan
has vehemently denied the allegation and the observers believe that Pakistan is
not capable of doing so, particularly at a time when Islamabad is striving to
convince Washington to desist from opting to military solution, but to find a
negotiated settlement of the quagmire.
Afghanistan Times in its editorial urges the US administration to take direct
action and eliminate safe havens of the terrorists enjoying sanctuaries in
Pakistan. “Despite pressures on Pakistan asserted by the US President Donald
Trump’s administration, NATO and regional community, Pakistan-based terrorist
groups including the Taliban and the notorious Haqqani network continue as
instruments for terrorist and destructive activities across Afghanistan. These
terrorist groups have been enjoying safe sanctuaries, training and fundraising
centers in big cities of Pakistan including the Tribal Region, Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.”
Most of the news analyses and reports appearing in the international press aim
their scathing criticism at Pakistan suggesting ‘punitive’ action against the
country. Back in Washington US Senator Rand Paul was all set to introduce a
legislation seeking a permanent ban of $2 billion civilian assistance to
Pakistan. The bill recommends redirecting the said funds, amounting to $1.28bn
from the State Department and $852 million from the United States Agency for
International Development to the Highway Trust Fund. Earlier, following
President Trump’s January 1 tweet, the United States has already stopped the
Coalition Support Fund, military aid and civilian assistance to Pakistan.
The international community, intelligentsia and defence observers see a method
of “madness” behind the series of attacks in Kabul. Smelling a well thought out
“plot” to implicate Pakistan and find a reason to launch incursions against
Pakistan, they observe, “it is next to impossible that Daesh or Taliban would
carry out attack after attack and that too on sensitive targets as well without
any worthwhile resistence. How is it possible that the United States that has
massive intelligence presence, both land and aerial, is unable to get
information on such well-planned attacks.” Rex Tillerson has warned that those
who support terrorists or offer sanctuaries to them will no longer be tolerated.
“The statement is understandably aimed at Pakistan and should leave no doubt
about what plans the United States has for the region.”
Saner elements, however, advise the Trump administration to eschew the path of
resorting to the use of force as this has miserably been failed to produce any
results in the past. Laurel Miller in a recent article under the caption “The
United States and Pakistan: Best Frenemies Forever?”, says “the United States
needs a strategy in Afghanistan and policy towards Pakistan based on the best
Pakistani bahaviour it can have, not the Pakistani behavior it wants to have.”
The United States, it says, is once again ratcheting up the pressure on Pakistan
to fall in line with the US policy in Afghanistan by ending the Afghan Taliban’s
enjoyment of safe haven. Unsurprisingly, Pakistan is once again pushing back.
Amid the mistrust, mutual recrimination, and stale narratives that have
increasingly characterized the US-Pakistan relationship in recent years, there
is one Pakistani talking point I have heard routinely from officials that should
be taken at face value: Pakistan does not intend to fight the Afghan war on
Pakistani soil. “New political tensions and demands will create opportunities
for Pakistan to build up other relationships in the region at US expense.”
That’s why Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khurram Dastagir Khan underscored over
the weekend when he spoke of a regional recalibration of the country’s foreign
and security policy, including looking towards Moscow and Beijing for military
supplies.
Daily Times in its January 30-editorial said “many in Pakistan fear that there
may be method behind the American ‘madness’; with some arguing that aid cuts
represent the first step towards this end.” It argues that the latest American
cash manoeuvrings are widely being seen by some as sowing the seeds of economic
chaos; that preferred first step in the path to overseas regime change. “We are
seeing possible and interlinked edeavours to destabilize this country to the
point of Afghanistan.”
President Trump’s announcement of “No Talks” with the Taliban came despite the
ongoing sincere efforts by China and Pakistan to bring the Taliban to the
negotiating table and reach a reconciliation. Recently China hosted the talks
with the presence of Pakistan and Afghanistan’s foreign ministers. The Chinese
leadership managed to bring warmness in the ties of both the countries. Earlier
this month a meeting of the Taliban’s Qatar delegation has already taken place
in Islamabad with the Pakistani officials, in which the Taliban had agreed to
come to the table to initiate talks with the US; however, they had refused to
hold talks with the Afghan government.
It obviously means that President Trump’s abrupt decision, in the backdrop of
series of attacks in Kabul, has buried the hopes of seeking the solution through
parleys. This also aims at frustrating the honest efforts being made by
Pakistan. The five-member Qatar-Taliban delegation that included Shahabuddin
Dilawar and Malawi Rasool, showed its willingness to hold the dialogue and find
ways for political settlement to end the ongoing violence in the country. It
also means that there is some ill will lying in the midst. The situation is
being deliberately taken to a point of no return.
Question is what would happen if the US, in collaboration with India, resorts to
taking what it says “punitive” military action against Pakistan? This is likely
to be catastrophic and the magnitude of it is not being realized. Afghan
imbroglio is reaching a boiling point and the region will be on the verge of
volcano if this “madness” is not stopped now. International community must take
its cognizance as early as possible.
(The author is a freelance)