We do not, cannot make demands on Pakistan: US ambassador

[A.Rafay]

LAHORE: Deputy US Ambassador to Pakistan, Richard Hoagland, commenting on the reports of a joint military operation in North Waziristan, clarified on Wednesday that the US cannot nor does it make any demands on Pakistan.
“We can make strong requests, we can give advice, we can seek cooperation, but we cannot make a demand on a sovereign nation,” Hoagland said during an exclusive interview to Express News.
“When Secretary Clinton [during her last visit to Pakistan] said that we would like to see Pakistan ‘squeeze’ the Haqqani network [in North Waziristan], there is a real fine distinction that it’s not a demand,” he stressed.
Recent reports of a joint Pak-US military operation in North Waziristan had caused panic among the locals who fled the area by the thousands.
Pakistan Army’s Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani too has denied reports of a joint military operation but maintained that an operation might be launched when necessary.
The armed forces have been conducting aerial raids in parts of the tribal areas along with some targeted ground action to combat militants.

 

[fatman17]

US denies offering Haqqani Network control of three Afghan provinces


The US State Department has been forced to deny reports that the US could hand over three Afghan provinces to the Taliban's Haqqani Network.


On 27 August Pakistan's Express Tribune newspaper reported an unnamed senior American military official as saying that the US would hand control of three Afghan provinces - Paktia, Paktika and Khost - to the Haqqanis if they severed ties to the Taliban.

The official deviated from US claims that the Network is a proxy for Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence agency, as alleged in July 2011 by Admiral Mike Mullen, then chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, and repeated by other officials since then. Instead, the official argued that neither the United States nor the Pakistani military were capable of eradicating the Haqqanis, and that the Pakistanis were concerned about reprisal attacks should they attempt to do so. As a result, talks were a preferred option, although Jalaluddin and Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Network's leaders, had not been forthcoming in this regard. This, the official said, made the use of force against the Network inevitable.

On 26 August Afghan officials claimed that a US air strike in North Waziristan had claimed the life of Badruddin Haqqani, a senior Network leader.

The article drew a quick response from the US embassy in Islamabad, which named the US officer as Brigadier General Stephen Twitty, a spokesman for US Forces-Afghanistan, and said the idea that the US could cede territory to the Haqqanis or the Taliban as "categorically false". However, when questioned about the reports on 27 August, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said only that she had "nothing new" to add and that "we encourage reconciliation for those who are reconcilable".

Speculation over a Pakistani military operation in the Haqqanis' haven of North Waziristan has also prompted reports of a civilian exodus from the tribal border area, although this is denied by some local village chiefs.


COMMENT
It is possible that the offer of provinces was part of a 'carrot and stick' communications strategy by the US to persuade the Haqqanis to negotiate, but such a strategy would have troubling implications. International attempts to build a unified Afghan state governed from Kabul are already heavily qualified by the autonomy of regional warlords - particularly in the central and northern provinces. Offering provincial control to the Haqqanis or the Taliban as a bargaining chip in peace talks would increase the Balkanisation of the country and further marginalise the Kabul government.

DW

 

[RazorMC]

True, they don't make public demands. It is our leadership that is so eager to grovel at their feet that everything the US utters seems like a demand.

PS: Quite a few of Afghanistan's provinces can be controlled by the Taliban/Haqqanis. It seems to me that they are waiting for the US to draw down its troops and then enter the arena where US dominance and retaliation can not be guaranteed.