- And the dangers of depending on it
US President Donald Trump wanted to present Afghan peace as a trophy during the 2020 Presidential elections. Failing to achieve that end so far, he tried to pressurise Iran to agree to his terms to be able to present this as a grand prize. Meanwhile he offered to mediate on Kashmir between India and Pakistan to show it off as an act of great statesmanship that ruled out the possibility of a war between two nuclear countries. Here too he met with failure ending up pleading with both Pakistan and India “Fellas, work it out. Just work it out.”
President Trump had pledged during his campaign to get every US soldier out of Afghanistan. It appeared that the 18-year-long Afghan was about to end as a result of nine sessions of bilateral talks in Qatar. While engaged in parleys, the Afghan Taliban also continued to expand the territory under their control and conducted terrorist attacks. A suicide attack that killed among others a US soldier, piqued President Trump and strengthened the hardliners in the US establishment. The dramatic spectacle arranged at Camp David was cancelled and the talks called off. The Taliban then contacted Moscow and Beijing.
On Wednesday President Trump offered India mediation over Kashmir a third time, only to be rebuffed again. Left with nothing to show as an achievement, Prime Minister Imran Khan undertook the mission assigned to him by Trump to defuse tensions with Iran. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani however made it known that there would be no parleys till sanctions are lifted and he was not interested in a “memento photo” with President Trump. Thus, with one stroke President Rouhani cut short Mr Khan’s mission while he also put the final nail in the coffin of efforts to negotiate a high-profile meeting with President Trump.
Mr Khan has to realise that unless Pakistan is economically strong and internally united, it will have little clout in the international community. The government has to raise taxes and devise policies aimed at increasing industrial and agricultural output. It needs to divert most of the budget to education, scientific research and manpower training. It has to improve the quality of government schools and colleges and set up prestigious universities.