The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is pressing the Haqqani network to join nascent Afghan peace talks, even as the US officials demand an offensive against the group, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Wednesday.
Washington has threatened more raids unless Pakistan moves swiftly against militants like the Haqqani network. The US says the Haqqanis are aided by Pakistan’s spy service, and is closely allied with al Qaeda. Yet, according to the WSJ, the ISI has resisted taking on the Haqqani network and wants the group to explore a role in Afghan peace talks, say Pakistani officials and tribal elders with ties to the group, suggesting Pakistan is unlikely to heed the US warning that it must act soon.
But the US officials say while Washington would talk with anyone who is serious about striking a peace deal, they do not believe Haqqani fits the bill. “The Haqqanis haven’t been included in recent efforts to open talks with the main Taliban leadership, headed by Mullah Muhammad Omar.” “I don’t see any evidence that makes me think Haqqani is a guy we’re going to want to be talking to,” said a US official. The newspaper quotes a tribal elder from North Waziristan, who has contacts with Haqqani’s inner circle, as saying that the network, spooked by an unrelenting campaign of the drone strikes and the death of bin Laden, may be increasingly amenable to talks.
He also told the WSJ that in one indication the Haqqanis were worried, their compounds in North Waziristan’s capital, Miran Shah, largely emptied out in the days following the killing of Osama. The newspaper reported a Pakistani defence official as saying that the Haqqanis represented a more vexing problem. “Unlike the Arabs and other foreigners who make up al Qaeda, the Haqqanis hail from the Pashtun Zadran tribe, part of the fabric of eastern Afghanistan and North Waziristan. They can’t be picked off willy-nilly by drone strikes.”
According to the WSJ, he argued the Haqqanis ultimately have to be won over through talks, just like the negotiations that the US is trying to open with the main Taliban movement, although American forces are fighting the insurgents at the same time. The official said Pakistan would use whatever influence it had over the Haqqanis – which he insisted was minimal – to bring them to the table, adding that the effort was being led by the ISI.
American officials say Haqqani, who is based in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal area, is a potential target for a raid like the one that killed bin Laden.
