Pakistan asks for pivotal role in settling Afghan war

NEW DELHI: In a development that set alarm bells ringing here, Pakistan has offered to mediate with the Taliban factions and has told the US that it is keen on playing a central role in resolving the Afghan war. A report in the New York Times said that Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had expressed his country’s willingness to play a significant role in the Taliban outreach programme at a meeting last month at Nato headquarters with top American military officials. This is being seen as a departure from Pakistan’s earlier reluctance to approach the Taliban and is seen as a move to counter India’s influence in Afghanistan. ``The Pakistanis want to be part of discussions that could involve reconciliation,” the report quoted a senior official as saying. General Kayani also told his interlocutors that Pakistan wanted greater influence in southern Afghanistan.

The carrot that Islamabad is dangling before Washington is of reining in the Haqqani network, the group behind the attack on the Indian embassy in Afghanistan and multiple attacks against US and Nato troops in Afghanistan.

According to the report, Islamabad is offering to use its leverage over the Taliban network of both Jalaluddin and Siraj Haqqani in return for greater influence in Afghanistan. These are two groups that the Americans have pinpointed as the most lethal factions fighting against Nato and US troops in Afghanistan. Their stronghold is in Pakistan’s North Waziristan.

The NYT report also noted that the Haqqani network has ties to Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies and have received protection from the Army on Pakistani soil. Quoting unnamed American and Pakistani officials, the report said that in return for reining in the Haqqani network Pakistan would be looking to stem Indian influence in Afghanistan.

The report further said that the US is still assessing the potential of a negotiated solution and at this stage wants Pakistan through military action to decrease the strength of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in southern Afghanistan where the Haqqanis command an estimated 4,000 fighters.

The US, the report said, has been pushing General Kayani to launch an offensive against the Haqqanis’ base in North Waziristan and engineer a separation between the Haqqani network and the Qaeda leadership.

The report said that American military commanders have fast-tracked a list of hardware from MI-17 helicopters, ammunition for Cobra attack helicopters to as an `inducement’ to take on the Haqqanis. However Gen Kayani had told reporters last week: “There is no need at this point to start a steamroller operation in North Waziristan.”