With Obama restricting drone programme focus can shift to talks with Taliban
The war on terror may one day end, is the glad message many took from President Obama’s speech last Thursday. The more immediate message was that “drone strikes will now be limited.” It appears foreign and local pressure has been telling for the US, which has decided to take the drone programme out of the hands of the CIA and put it firmly in the hands of the civilian administration. The US President has moved to restrict the use of drones against “only an imminent, continuing” threat, instead of the earlier policy against any vaguely defined “significant threat.” The US Secretary of State John Kerry, due to arrive in Pakistan soon, speaking in Adis Ababa tried to brush off suggestions that the limits in the drone programme are due to “pressure,” rather claiming that the drone programme had successfully weakened the Al-Qaeda leadership.
The US decision comes at an appropriate time for the new Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government in the centre, with one less worry from the front of international relations, it can continue to attempt the task of “holding peace talks with the Taliban,” as agreed in the All-Parties Conference (APC) hosted by the Jamaat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) two weeks before the elections. On the one side, it is a positive sign that agreements before the elections are being upheld by political parties after the elections. But on the other side, some suggest that with John Kerry also declaring that the US “prefers talking with, rather than fighting the Taliban,” the international consensus is pushing the JUI-F and PML-N to stick to the “talk with the Taliban” policy.
This also suggests that political parties are ready to forgive the Taliban for trying to destablise the country prior to the elections. The question again is: what are the terms of the peace talks? No one knows. What is expected is that with the drop in drone strikes, public hostility to the US may be reduced. With the US and NATO troops also set to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014, there is certainly need for more stable, amicable relations between all the regional countries and the US. The US is now looking to Pakistan to aid it in helping the NATO evacuation of Afghanisatan. It means that the argument the Taliban has been able to employ, that the “Pakistan government acts as a poodle to US interests,” may no longer hold. The new consensus is on talks with the Taliban, but the perimeters of such talks need to be worked out soon. And what if they fail, once again? With the US out of the picture if the Taliban choose not to give up arms, then any necessary fight against it would at least be considered an internal fight. The new drone paradigm promises much to the next government. Now it is up to them to carry the mantle.