In the crucial US-Pak-Afghan trilateral meeting scheduled to be held this week in the Afghan capital, Islamabad and Kabul will urge the US to include the Haqqani network in the ongoing talks with the Taliban and stop opposing the Karzai administration’s efforts to hold negotiations with this influential Taliban faction.
The trilateral meeting, being held on June 28 (tomorrow) is crucial in the sense that it will take place in the wake of US President Barack Obama’s announcement of troops’ drawdown from Afghanistan. The US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan has already reached Kabul for the meeting and will hold talks with Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin, who will represent their countries in the vital talks.
As the United States has now admitted it is holding talks with the Mullah Omar-led Taliban, Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed on the need for inclusion of the Haqqani network, which is allegedly based in the restive tribal region of North Waziristan, in the ongoing reconciliation process. They, however, confront the daunting task of impressing upon the Obama administration to support their bid to reach out to this Taliban group, which is considered to be the most dangerous militant faction fighting the US-led NATO troops in Afghanistan.
The agreement on talks with the Haqqani network’s Siraj Haqqani and his father Jalaluddin Haqqani and that Pakistan’s would help Kabul in reaching out to them, was clinched during Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s recent visit to Islamabad. “In pursuance of that agreement, the two sides have decided through diplomatic channels that the US would be persuaded to drop its opposition to the peace talks with the Haqqanis,” a Pakistani diplomat said, requesting anonymity.
“Grossman will be plainly told that the Haqqani network cannot be overlooked if permanent peace in Afghanistan is the true and real objective,” he said. An Islamabad-based Afghan diplomat said the US was specifically against talks with Siraj Haqqani, as it considers him responsible for the killing of several of its troops in Afghanistan and someone “very close” to al Qaeda leaders.
“They (Americans) have a problem with Siraj and they want to capture or kill him as is obvious from his name included in the list of five most-wanted terror leaders recently handed over by US officials to Islamabad. The US officials believe that if Siraj were eliminated, the rest of the leaders of his group, including his father Jalaluddin, could be engaged in meaningful talks for peace and security in Afghanistan,” the diplomat said.
However, he said Siraj’s grip on the group was firm and he had also been able to dodge a massive manhunt launched by the US for years. “This is what we want to tell the US authorities that they need to talk to Siraj also if they want the permanent solution to the Afghan quagmire, but unfortunately, they have only focused on the Mullah Omar-led Taliban group,” he said.
Karzai not to fall back on US troops
WASHINGTON – Afghan President Hamid Karzai ruled out Sunday asking the United States for more troops if the security situation in Afghanistan deteriorates during or following the US military drawdown. Karzai, speaking to CNN in his first US interview since the drawdown announcement, welcomed the move but refused to be drawn into a debate on the specific numbers, saying, “We have no opinion on that.”
“The number of troops, that he has announced to be withdrawn this year and the rest, next year, is a sign that Afghanistan is taking over its own security and trying to defend its territory by its own means. So we are happy with the announcement.” Asked whether he might go back to Obama and ask him to perhaps reverse his drawdown decision if the Afghan army and police failed to maintain security, Karzai replied: “I will not do that.” AFP
