Pakistan, US at odds over mode to tackle Haqqanis

The United States has given a nod to Pakistan’s efforts for bringing the Haqqani Network to the table of negotiations, but the process is not likely to be result-oriented owing to serious differences between Islamabad and Washington over the ‘modus operandi’, with the former sticking to its demand for ‘talk and fight’ going together and later asking for a ceasefire with the powerful militant group first, and commencement of dialogue later.
As admitted by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton herself in interaction with Pakistani journalists, the US officials held a meeting with the a member of Haqqani family with the help of the ISI and a friendly gulf state in August this year. The meeting between Ibrahim Haqqani, son of Haqqani Network’s founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, and US officials took place in a Middle Eastern country.
However, later, the deadly militant attacks on the US embassy in Kabul and NATO base in Wardak province of Afghanistan changed the situation, with the stance of Americans getting harder and the US blaming the ISI for sponsoring the attacks and asking with renewed vigour for the North Waziristan operation against the Haqqanis. Pakistani authorities, nonetheless, refused to succumb to American pressure and came up with a firm no to US demand for North Waziristan operation.
It forced the US to send a high-powered delegation led by Secretary Clinton to Islamabad, which comprised of CIA chief David Petraeus and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin E Dempsey. “After two-day of intense negotiations between the top Pakistani civilian and military leaders and the US delegation, Islamabad and Washington have been able to narrow down their differences on how to deal with the Haqqani Network and the Americans have expressed their willingness for talks with the militant group,” a Pakistani security official privy to the high level Pak-US talks said.
He said US authorities were still of the view that there must be pressure on the Haqqanis for which fighting needed to be kept going along with reconciliatory efforts to “soften the enemy”. “But Pakistani authorities do not see eye to eye with the US officials on this very issue and they want the US to go for ceasefire first or at least lower the level of fighting considerably,” the security official said.
He said the US secretary of state was heard repeatedly saying, “We need to squeeze the Hqqani Network”, meaning action by US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan as well as provision of more and detailed intelligence information about the movement and planning of the militant group on the Pakistani side of the border and also denial of hideouts on part of Islamabad”. Another official confirmed the differences over the mode as to tackle the Haqqani Network.
“The Americans are ignoring this simple thing that Haqqanis are Pasthuns and in fact it’s the case about whole Taliban movement led by Mullah Umar. The US authorities need to understand after spending so many years in Afghanistan that you need to stop fighting if you want a dialogue,” he said. He added that there was one more problem and that was the guarantee being sought by the US officials about the success of dialogue with Taliban militants.
“How can we give such a guarantee? Yes we can facilitate talks but that doesn’t mean that the Taliban are subservient to us, they will do whatever suits them,” the official said.