The prime minister’s statement that both Hillary Clinton and he have “almost agreed” on all points demanded by the US is as vague as the US policy on South Asia. Neither is the US objective any clear nor the roadmap it has demarcated to proceed upon in Afghanistan. This new notion of almost agreeing upon points with the US indicates that the end game in Afghanistan is bound to remain a muddle despite everything said by the Americans.
Pakistan is ready, according to the Pakistani premier, to support any initiative taken by Afghanistan for the purpose of reconciliation, a process that is based upon pre-conditions provided by the US without defining any significant strategy. The fact that Clinton also mentioned that both countries have agreed upon 90-95 percent of the things that have been talked about seems to be a link of this new fuzzy policy of semantic deception that the leaders have adopted of late.
This notion of almost agreeing falls somewhere in the middle of the agreement scale and leaves everyone with the liberty to act or not to act at all. What we can interpret from these terminologies is that things are surely not as they seem but diplomacy demands that civility be maintained.
PROFESSOR KABIL KHAN
Peshawar
