'US support of Pakistan strategic mistake'

WASHINGTON: A senior Afghan official is urging the United States to re-evaluate its friendship with Pakistan, accusing the country of supporting Al-Qaeda and other Islamic extremists as it plays a double-game.

Writing in Monday's Washington Post, Afghanistan's national security adviser Rangin Dadfar Spanta said Pakistani policy has helped maintain a level of violence that is leading to the erosion of Western support for the war.

US-led troops are deployed with a mission to fight extremist groups, but the task "has been compounded by another strategic failure: the mistaken embrace of 'strategic partners' who have, in fact, been nurturing terrorism," he wrote.

"While we are losing dozens of men and women to terrorist attacks every day, the terrorists' main mentor continues to receive billions of dollars in aid and assistance. How is this fundamental contradiction justified?" Spanta wrote.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have long had a fraught relationship. Pakistan was the main supporter of the hardline Taliban regime but switched sides overnight after the September 11, 2001 attacks, becoming the frontline US partner.

The United States last year approved a 7.5 billion-dollar aid package for Pakistan and has played a lead role in assistance during major floods, hoping its helping hand will reduce rampant anti-Americanism.

US officials credit Pakistan with stepping up the fight against homegrown Taliban, including through a blistering assault in its tribal northwest last year, but many believe Pakistani intelligence has maintained links with extremists targeting Afghanistan and historic enemy India.

Spanta acknowledged bluntly that international support has dropped for the Afghan campaign, writing: "Global opinion has also turned against us."

While acknowledging Western concerns were partially due to Afghanistan's corruption, Spanta also pointed to Pakistan, saying: "We have failed to mobilize people for a cause where the fighting is in one place and the enemy is in another."

Many experts believe that Pakistan' top goal in Afghanistan is ensuring it can exert influence after the US pullout. President Barack Obama wants to start removing combat troops in mid-2011.