WASHINGTON: Shifting between soft persuasions and tough
advice, the United States is now saying that Pakistan could lose control
of its territory if it does not sever ties with the Haqqanis and other
terrorists.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — who
issued the advice at a Washington think-tank earlier this week — also
said the militants who were focusing on Kabul might one day decide that
Islamabad was a better target.
The warning followed a
Pentagon statement, which said the new US strategy for Afghanistan had
“fundamentally changed the battlefield in favour of Afghan national
security forces” and the Taliban militants were now on the retreat.
And
this change happened because the new strategy made it clear that US
forces would stay in Afghanistan for as long as it took to stabilise the
country and also because it gave American troops more power to confront
the enemy, the Pentagon added.
The two statements
follow the Trump administration’s repeated calls to Pakistan to do more
to destroy the alleged safe havens that Afghan militants still retain in
parts of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), a charge
Islamabad strongly denies.
“Pakistan has allowed so many
terrorist organisations to find safe haven within its territories, and
these organisations are growing in size and influence, that at some
point I have said to the leadership of Pakistan, you may be the target,
and they turn their attention from Kabul and decide they like Islamabad
as a target better,” Secretary Tillerson said.
In his
remarks on “Meeting the foreign policy challenges of 2017 and beyond”
organised by the 2017 Atlantic Council-Korea Foundation Forum, Mr
Tillerson said that Pakistan’s relationship with the Haqqani network
needed to be altered. “I understand that this is a relationship that has
emerged probably for, in their view, good reasons a decade ago, but now
that relationship has to be altered because if they’re not careful,
Pakistan is going to lose control of their own country,” he said.
The
top US diplomat assured Pakistan that Washington wanted to work with
Islamabad to “stamp out terrorism within their boundaries”, but Pakistan
had to “begin the process” by changing its relationship with the
Haqqani network and with others.
