No ‘real’ gains from Hillary’s Islamabad visit

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent visit to Pakistan was no doubt the most significant trip by any senior American official in recent years, in which she urged Pakistan to either help Washington in dismantling the “Haqqani Network” or broker meaningful and result-oriented talks with this most powerful militant faction in Afghanistan.
However, it left many wondering in the Pakistani capital and especially those observers, who have been keenly monitoring the US war against the Taliban in the last 10 years, whether Pakistani would be able to able to make the Haqqanis sit across the table of negotiations with the Americans and that too for parleys that lead to concrete results.
Obviously, Islamabad is not inclined for any military operations in the country’s restive tribal belt and especially in North Waziristan where the Haqqanis are allegedly based and its desirable option as for the Haqqani Network is to have it willing for peace talks with the United States.
The task, nonetheless, is daunting, given the Haqqanis’ lack of interest in any talks with the Americans and especially when it sees that on the battlefield it has inflicted huge losses on the US-led foreign troops in Afghanistan in recent months.And it is the case not only with the Haqqanis but the entire Taliban movement, which comprises of many groups that have taken oath of allegiance to Mullah Omar. The Taliban leaders now talk with pride about their victories in Afghanistan against the US and NATO forces and they believe that entering into meaningful peace negotiations with the Americans would simply mean losing the advantage that they have in the war field.
Hence, despite all that is being said and written about Clinton’s Islamabad visit that it was a very successful one and Pakistan and the US have agreed on a plan for negotiations with the Taliban, there is still a very far way to go in terms of any tangible results.
The top most American diplomat in fact achieved little during her Islamabad’s visit, which is the decision of Islamabad and Washington that instead of ‘no talks’ continue with efforts for de-escalation of tensions. If we focus on the Haqqani Network, which has been a source of great worry and tension for the US in the last couple of years, it does have a soft corner for Islamabad, but to say that it would do whatever it has been told to do so by the Pakistani authorities would tantamount to being naïve.
It was only in August this year that Ibrahim Haqqani, uncle of Siraj Haqqani, met American officials in a Middle Eastern state and that meeting was arranged by the ISI, with chief of ISI, Lt General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, also attending the vital talks.
However, it was in September this year that a deadly terrorist assault was carried out by the militants on the US embassy in Kabul. The American officials put the onus of that attack on Haqqani Network and decided to suspend the very initial contacts it had made in August with the militant outfit.
With US having its eyes on 2014, when most of the American troops would withdraw from Afghanistan and President Obama worried about his re-election bid in 2012, the circumstances have forced Washington once again to opt for talks with Haqqanis, with Islamabad’s help.
But the recent spate of attacks in Afghanistan by Taliban including the Haqqanis, show that they are not interested in any talks, at least for some time unless and until the Americans are pushed to the extent of yielding the desired results for the Taliban movement.
And what the Taliban leaders have been eyeing? It’s a major share in the next ruling dispensation meant for Kabul and withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan with no permanent military bases of United States.
Apart from these major demands, the Taliban also want the release of hundreds of their prisoners currently in US custody and in return they could come up with assurance that there will be no future safe havens for al Qaeda and other terrorist groups on Afghan soil.
It makes it a very complicated situation for the United States as the other option it has is the continuation of ongoing war with the Taliban in Afghanistan, which means more bloodshed and more adverse impact on the US economy, something that is not acceptable to the American people.