US to seek joint FATA operations in trilateral talks

[Screaming Skull]

US to seek joint FATA operations in trilateral talks​

Tuesday, 14 Apr, 2009

WASHINGTON: Efforts are being made to elevate the next trilateral meeting of the United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan to a summit level, diplomatic sources told Dawn.

The meeting is expected to be held May 5-7 in Washington. The first trilateral meeting, also held in Washington in late February, involved the foreign ministers of the three countries. But now all three governments are seriously considering a proposal to bring together their leaders.

Afghanistan and Pakistan also sent their intelligence officials to the first meeting to sort out contentious issues. Later, US Secretary of State Clinton told the media that all three countries had agreed to hold trilateral meetings on a regular basis.

The need to hold a summit meeting, however, stems from the realisation that differences among the three key allies in the war against extremism are too serious to be resolved by their foreign ministers.

While Pakistan and Afghanistan have always differed with each other over how to fight the extremists, last week the United States and Pakistan also went public with their differences.

Pakistan openly rejected a US proposal to conduct joint operations in the tribal areas and also criticised certain conditions being attached to a proposed legislation to triple US economic assistance to the country.

Later, US State Department’s spokesman Robert Wood told a briefing in Washington that the United States and Pakistan too had differences but said such differences were not unexpected in a complex and difficult issue like fighting the extremists.

In the second round of the trilateral meeting, the United States may once again raise the issue of joint military operations in the tribal areas.

The Pakistanis are likely to emphasise on the regional approach that the United States had initiated before announcing its new strategy for Pakistan and Afghanistan last month.

The US administration expects its special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, to use his diplomatic skills to convince Islamabad to accept joint military operations in Fata.

The Pakistanis, however, view the proposed operations as potentially disastrous and have rejected the US proposal. They argue that the political cost of such operations will be so serious that it can bring down the government in Islamabad.

In an area as difficult as Fata, the operations cannot bring a major military victory either, the Pakistanis argue.

However, the Pakistanis believe that they will have to offer an alternative plan to combat the extremists hiding in Fata to satisfy the Americans

Pakistan is also urging the US to go back to the original idea of a region approach, which required Pakistan, India and Afghanistan to work together to resolve major problems facing the South Asian region.

The Pakistanis claim that the original plan for the original approach also stressed the need to resolve bilateral issues between India and Pakistan, such as the Kashmir dispute.

The Americans, however, shelved the plan when India refused to participate in any meeting where the Kashmir issue is discussed.

The Pakistanis say that they do not understand the new US approach, which requires Pakistan to recognise India as a major player in Afghanistan without seeking any assurance from New Delhi.

Islamabad opposes another US proposal for forming a contact group for dealing with the problem of extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s tribal areas.

The Pakistanis complain that this proposal requires them to compromise their sovereignty by involving other nations in an internal issue, the Fata insurgency.

Pakistan is also urging the Americans not to make any major move at this stage when three neighbouring countries — India, Iran and Afghanistan – are holding elections.

‘What you hear during the election season is election rhetoric,’ said a Pakistani diplomat while explaining Islamabad’s position. ‘You cannot expect a breakthrough during an election season.’

Yet, the Pakistanis welcome the next round of trilateral talks, hoping that it would help reduce tensions among the three allies, the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Acknowledging that there were tensions between the US and Pakistan over how to counter the insurgency, Mr Holbrooke said: ‘We have had a long and complicated history, our two countries, and we cannot put the past behind us but we must learn from it and move forward.’

But the Afghan ambassador in Washington, Said Jawad, does not seem very optimistic about improvement in Kabul’s relations with Islamabad.

‘Pakistani security institutions do not see extremism and terrorism as a serious threat to Pakistan, Afghanistan and the world; they see India as the main threat,’ he said. ‘We have not seen any indications that the support’ by these institutions to militant groups ‘has discontinued’. The support is going on.’

Lisa Curtis, a scholar of South Asian affairs at Washington’s Heritage Foundation, backs the Afghan position. ‘Pakistani security officials calculate that the Taliban offers the best chance for countering India’s regional influence,’ she said.

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