Pakistan is lobbying Afghan President Hamid Karzai against building a long-term strategic partnership with the United States, urging him instead to look to Pakistan and China for help in striking a peace deal with the Taliban and rebuilding the economy, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) quoted Afghan officials as saying on Wednesday.
The paper said the pitch was made at an April 16 meeting in Kabul by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who “bluntly” told Karzai that the Americans had failed them both, according to Afghans familiar with the meeting. Karzai should forget about allowing a long-term US military presence in his country, Gilani said.
The Journal quoted Pakistani officials as saying they no longer had an incentive to follow the American lead in their own backyard. “We’re not looking for anyone else to protect us, especially the US. If they’re leaving, they’re leaving and they should go,” said a Pakistani official. Pro- and anti-American factions around Karzai were trying to sway him to their sides, said the Journal.
The paper said Afghans in the pro-US camp who shared details of the meeting with the Journal said they did so to prompt the US to move faster toward securing the strategic partnership agreement. “The longer they wait… the more time Pakistan has to secure its interests,” said one of the pro-US Afghan officials. Some US officials said the idea of China taking a leading role in Afghanistan was “fanciful at best”, the paper reported.
However, said the Journal, General David Petraeus had met Karzai three times since April 16, in part to reassure the Afghan leader that he had America’s support. A senior Inter-Services Intelligence official told the Journal that it was Pakistan that “should be cheesed because we are totally out of the loop on what the Americans are doing in Afghanistan”.
FO says report is ‘ridiculous’
ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office rejected the Wall Street Journal report saying baseless assertions had been made in it. Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua told Reuters that it was “the most ridiculous report we have come across.” “Reports claiming Gilani-Karzai discussion about Pakistan advising alignment away from US are inaccurate,” Pakistan’s Ambassador to US Hussain Haqqani, wrote on his Twitter feed. Agencies
