WASHINGTON: The official White House year-ender has highlighted the joint US-Pakistan operation to rescue a North American couple from Taliban custody as one of its major achievements.
It
also talks about the new US strategy for Afghanistan, launched in
August this year, as a demonstration of the Trump administration’s
resolve to win the Afghan war.
In October, Pakistani
troops operating on US intelligence rescued Caitlan Coleman, her husband
Joshua Boyle and their three children after locating them in the
mountains of Kurram region.
The American woman and her
Canadian husband spent nearly five years in Taliban hideouts in Pakistan
and Afghanistan. All three children were born in captivity.
“This
is a positive moment for our country’s relationship with Pakistan,”
said President Trump while announcing the rescue operation at a White
House event on Oct 12. He said the joint operation was “a sign that
Pakistan is honouring America’s wishes for it to do more to provide
security in the region.”
Although previous US
administrations had also asked Pakistan to do more, the Trump
administration made it a key part of its new Afghan strategy.
While
announcing the strategy, President Trump called upon Pakistan to
“demonstrate its commitment to civilisation, order and to peace” by
disassociating itself from the “agents of chaos, violence and terror”.
The
new strategy also warned against the possibility of Pakistan’s nuclear
weapons falling into the hands of terrorists and being used against the
United States.
These were perhaps the harshest remarks
uttered against Pakistan by any US president over the course of their
70-year relationship, which has seen many ups and downs.
Pakistan
says the new strategy is disappointing as it disregards Islamabad’s
sacrifices in the war against terrorism and unfairly blames the country
for Afghanistan’s failures.
The White House year-ender,
however, insists that the new Afghanistan strategy “strengthens our
support for Afghan security forces, delegates authority to military
leaders, and demonstrates our resolve to defeat terrorism.”
The
White House points out that in reaction to the new US South Asia
strategy, Nato allies and partners increased troop contributions to
Nato’s Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan.
