Ghani means business

[marwat]

Ghani list Of Security Demands To Sharif.
In a confidential letter to Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, President Ashraf Ghani has set out a list of demands in terms of bridging the neighboring divide and ending extremism in the region – with the primary focus being on Afghanistan's security.


1)An official declaration by the political leadership of Pakistan condemning the launching of the Talban offensive, operation; a directive by the military leadership that sanctuary will be denied to the Taliban and effective measures by the security forces and civil authorities that the directive is carried out.

that means JI, JUI fazal Rehman and JUI samiulhaq should condemn taliban activities officially.

2)A direct(ive) to extend the counter-terror campaign to the Haqqani network and verification that those responsible for the recent terror campaign in Afghanistan are arrested.

3)place the leaders of the Quetta Shura and the Peshawar Shura under house arrest and to initiate legal proceedings against them for threatening a friendly state.

4)agreeing on an exchange of prisoners such as Mulla Bridar (Afghan Taliban Commander) for (members of) Tehrik-i-Taliban-i-Pakistan

5)A directive to all medical facilities to turn over those with war wounds to the custody of security officials for investigation and arrest

6)factories producing fertilizer and switches for improvised explosive devices (IEDs) be allowed to sell only to authorized firms.

7)agreement to carry out a series of simultaneous operations to deny passage to TTP (Tehrik Taliban Pakistan) and TTA (Tehrik Taliban Afghanistan), such as Baramcha.

The letter went on to state: "Regardless of his firm commitment to peace, President Ghani has no choice but to become a War President to ensure the survival of his country and the safety of Afghan women and children."

http://www.tolonews.com/en/afghanistan/19767-ghani-reportedly-sent-list-of-security-demands-to-sharif

[MENTION=8995]DSM0305[/MENTION] [MENTION=4505]Khostai[/MENTION] [MENTION=1772]BarakzaiAbdali[/MENTION] [MENTION=18008]tripledouble[/MENTION]

[khushal]

They could arrest all the leaders they want and they arrested many in 2001 and 2002 and handed them over to Gitmo, it wont accomplish anything. Arresting the leaders actually serve pakistani interests since many of the new blood are mostly trained by the ISI which means their influence in the insurgency would only strengthen. The motivation for the insurgency needs to be muted and that is the afghan gov corruption and that the gov mostly represents persiofascists who use foreign soldiers to keep power for themselves.

[marwat]

In a sign that Afghanistan is rethinking its outreach efforts to Pakistan, President Ashraf Ghani has demanded that Islamabad end its longstanding support for the Afghan Taliban.

In a letter to Pakistani civilian and military leaders, Ghani has requested specific steps to end the Taliban's sanctuary in their country and help in addressing their violent campaign inside Afghanistan.

Insiders at the Arg presidential palace in Kabul have confirmed that Ghani wrote a letter to Pakistani leaders this week asking them to prove their sincerity in backing the Afghan peace process by taking seven steps in the next three weeks.

"Islamabad should issue an official declaration condemning the launch of the Taliban [spring] offensive," an Afghan official familiar with the letter told RFE/RL's Gandhara website. Pakistan should "extend counterterrorism operations to the Haqqani network and arrest those responsible for the recent terrorist activities inside Afghanistan," the official said.

In one of the most revealing demands, Ghani has asked Pakistan's military leadership to issue a "directive" to deny sanctuary for the Afghan Taliban.

For the past 14 years, Kabul and its western allies have accused the powerful Pakistani military of turning a blind eye or even supporting the remnants of the Afghan Taliban regime hiding in and operating from Pakistan.

Another major demand included "placing Quetta and Peshawar shura (the Taliban leadership council) members under house arrest and initiating legal proceedings against them for threatening security of friendly states," said the official, who requested anonymity.

He said Ghani has also asked Islamabad to agree to an exchange of prisoners, deny Taliban combatants medical treatment inside Pakistan, and limit the sale of fertilizers and electrical switches that can be used in detonating improvised explosive devices (IEDs) -- a common killer of Afghan troops and civilians.

The letter is a marked turnaround for the Afghan leader, who made cultivating a cooperative, bilateral relationship with Pakistan one of his key foreign policy initiatives -- and a way of ending his country's decades-old war -- after assuming office in September.

During the past seven months, Ghani has worked hard to improve relations between the two neighbors from what he termed "undeclared hostilities" by clandestinely supporting insurgents toward friendship by invoking regional cooperation and trust between the two nations. To address Pakistani suspicions, he has toned down Afghanistan's traditional alliance with India and even attempted unprecedented security cooperation with Islamabad despite facing a crescendo of domestic opposition.

Barnett Rubin, a veteran scholar of Afghanistan, says Ghani has gotten little in return for taking considerable political risk by reaching out to Pakistan and trying to assuage the concerns its powerful security establishment claims to have about Afghanistan.

"Since he made all these efforts, the Taliban based in Pakistan have launched their biggest spring offensive ever, and I have not seen any evidence that anyone in Pakistan is trying to stop them," Rubin said.

"Unless Ghani can show Afghans that his efforts lead to concrete improvements in security and the prospect of a peace agreement, he will have no choice than to state publicly that Pakistan is trying to destabilize Afghanistan," he said.

Pakistani civilian and military leaders, however, have made pragmatic statements. Afghan officials were elated when Pakistan's powerful military chief, General Raheel Sharif, declared that the "enemies of Afghanistan are enemies of Pakistan" during a visit to Kabul in February.

But their hopes of seeing decisive action against the Afghan Taliban in Pakistan were dashed when the insurgents announced their spring offensive on April 24. With the start of the Taliban "Azm" (determination) campaign, insecurity rapidly increased as the Taliban turned to more conventional tactics in an effort to control territory.

Their violent campaign is being aided by thousands of Central Asian fighters, most of whom fled into Afghanistan last year after the Pakistani military targeted their stronghold in the northwestern North Waziristan tribal district along Afghanistan's southeastern border.

Taliban violence has strained the Afghan forces, who are mostly fighting on their own after NATO ended its combat operations in the country. "The New York Times" recently reported that Afghan casualties are increasing at an alarming rate. During the first quarter of 2015, some 1,800 Afghan forces were killed and twice as many wounded -- a casualty rate 65 percent higher compared with the same period last year.

In what is being viewed as a last-ditch diplomatic effort to salvage relations with Ghani, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his military chief visited Kabul on May 12.

"We strongly condemn the increase in violence and the Operation Azm offensive by the Afghan Taliban," Sharif told reporters in an apparent bid to address Ghani's demands. "The continuation of such attacks and the offensive will be construed as terrorist acts, and we condemn such attacks in the strongest terms," he added.

Sharif even promised that Taliban "sanctuaries, when found, will be eliminated by direct action, and will be monitored by the existing mechanism" and "any effort by any militant or group to destabilize Afghanistan will be dealt with severely and such elements will be outlawed and hunted down."

In another sign of good will last week, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate facilitated talks between some Afghan Taliban leaders and Afghanistan's newly nominated defense minister, Masoum Stanikzai, in the northwestern Chinese city of Urumqi. Stanikzai was previously head of the Afghan Peace Council secretariat and was Kabul's point man for peace talks.

Rubin, however, said the talks failed to impress Kabul because two of the three Taliban leaders who participated, Mullah Abdul Jalil and Mullah Abdul Razaq, have not held power within the Taliban organization for years.

"The third, Mullah Hasan Rahmani, is not part of the top decision-making team, so they could not produce any results," he said. "It might have been a useful exchange of ideas, but it is unlikely to be a step toward genuine negotiations."

A "nonofficial meeting" between Afghan officials and Taliban representatives in the Qatari capital of Doha at the beginning of May merely ended in an agreement that the two sides will hold similar summits in future.

This week, Pakistani media reported that Islamabad has issued a "stern warning" to Afghan Taliban leaders to immediately cease fighting in Afghanistan or face consequences.

But Rubin, who has formerly advised Washington on Afghanistan policy, says so far Kabul does not see any action.

"Yes, the Pakistan military and ISI delivered what I understand was a strong message urging the Taliban to enter into negotiations with the Afghan government and stop fighting," he said. "But there have been no consequences for those who refused."

For years Islamabad denied any Afghan Taliban presence on its soil after remnants of the hard-line regime set up its headquarters in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Balochistan Province.

Observers say that in recent years Pakistan has arrested some Taliban leaders whenever they crossed its red lines such as establishing contact with Kabul.

"The ISI knows who in the Taliban leadership is blocking efforts to start talks. If they can't or don't want to arrest everyone, they could at least detain those who refused their demand to negotiate," Rubin said.

"But they have not arrested even one person. Compare that to how they treat Baluch separatists or the TTP (Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan), and the statements that 'Afghanistan's enemies are their enemies' look like empty words," he said.

Rubin says the letter seems to have no direct relationship to the strong opposition to the recent agreement over an intelligence-sharing agreement between the spy services of the two countries. "The opposition to the Memorandum of Understanding is just one expression of the deep doubt that Afghans feel about any Pakistani pledge of cooperation," he said.

A palace insider says that before sending the letter to Pakistan Ghani consulted key lawmakers in Kabul. He says the briefing helped quell tempers over the intelligence deal and lawmakers scrapped summons for the Afghan spy chief and the national security adviser to explain the deal before parliament.

Rubin foresees little concrete Pakistani action in the near future. "What is astonishing is that it seems that so far they have not done any of the things Ghani asked for except issue statements," he said.

http://gandhara.rferl.org/content/afghanistan-ghani-tough-letter-to-pakistan-/27044658.html

[Da Bannu Mazdigar]

The establishment of Pakistan should do the best they can to bring peace in Afghanistan

[randolph85]

Ghani is talking like he is in a position of power which he isn't, these demands will probably make the Paki leadership more antagonistic towards him. He was stupid to put all his eggs in one basket, especially with the ISI agreement before any clear moves on Pakistan's part to cooperate with him, besides rhetoric of peace talks which haven't materialized.

[Shamlawar Khurasani]

The bald headed midget probably never studied game theory.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

Whats interesting about all of this is that if you know Karzai and you know the Karzai family - and you followed the events of 2001... Karzai himself purposefully permitted Mullah Omar to escape on motor cycle from Kandahar City...

So Ghani has his predecessor to thank. Mullah Naqib was involved in this decision making.

[marwat]

Commentators have expressed skepticism about a recent list of demands issued by President Ashraf Ghani to the Pakistani government, casting doubt on Islamabad's commitment to peace and stability in Afghanistan.

Ghani issued his demands in a confidential letter to Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif this week. TOLOnews received a copy of the letter and had independent analysts provide their commentary on it.

Within the letter, Ghani makes the following demands: "An official declaration by the political leadership of Pakistan condemning the launching of the Talban offensive operation; a directive by the military leadership that sanctuary will be denied to the Taliban and effective measures by the security forces and civil authorities that the directive is carried out."

The letter further demanded "a direct(ive) to extend the counter-terror campaign to the Haqqani network and verification that those responsible for the recent terror campaign in Afghanistan are arrested."

The letter comes as both the Afghan and Pakistani governments have tried to portray their relations as improving. In an unprecedented move, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) outlining plans for cooperation on counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations.

Meanwhile, analysts have said Ghani's high-stakes demands are likely to complicate ties between the two neighbors. "I think Pakistan will never bow to such demands and this could affect the diplomatic ties between Kabul and Islamabad," military analyst Jawed Kohistani told TOLOnews.

In his letter, Ghani sets a three-week deadline for Pakistan to meet his demands. "If this does not happen, the window of opportunity will be closed," Ghani warns.

Yet distrust toward Pakistan remains pervasive among my Afghan leaders and commentators. "We saw over the past one month that Pakistan did not take any initiative to improve the situation, therefore, I don't think Pakistan will offer a hand of friendship to Afghanistan," MP Shah Gul Rezayee said.

On the other side of the border, some Pakistani commentators have also expressed reservations about the letter. "This letter washed away all the optimism about new relations between the two countries," Pakistani political analyst Nisar Mohammad Khan said.

Ghani's letter goes so far as to demand the Pakistani government "place the leaders of the Quetta Shura and the Peshawar Shura under house arrest and to initiate legal proceedings against them for threatening a friendly state."

The letter suggests a prisoner swap, such as Mulla Bridar (an Afghan Taliban Commander) for members of Tehrik-i-Taliban-i-Pakistan, as well as tighter regulations on factories producing fertilizer and mechanical tools used in making improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

[marwat]

Ghani is talking like he is in a position of power which he isn't, these demands will probably make the Paki leadership more antagonistic towards him. He was stupid to put all his eggs in one basket, especially with the ISI agreement before any clear moves on Pakistan's part to cooperate with him, besides rhetoric of peace talks which haven't materialized.

this is so true, all these blunders are happening because he did not have any clear security policy to move forward. he was saying that we will not make any peace deal but Afghan reconciliation will be a process, but now at once he came with all these demands. seems like the other stake holder in Afghan government have pushed Ghani for all these tough demands, if pakistan agree go with the intelligence MOU otherwise say No.
pakistan establishment is sane, i can see another visit to kabul is due.

[Shehbaz Khan]

Though I know very little about the politics of Afghanistan, the pressures on President Ashraf Ghani and his sincerity towards the situation. I just wish for a mutual Memorandum signed by both these countries to secure their countrymen. Let the blood shed on both ends of the durand end once and for all. So that our people may prosper.

[khushal]

Though I know very little about the politics of Afghanistan, the pressures on President Ashraf Ghani and his sincerity towards the situation. I just wish for a mutual Memorandum signed by both these countries to secure their countrymen. Let the blood shed on both ends of the durand end once and for all. So that our people may prosper.

Afghan politics as far as gov is concerned is controlled by warlords. If Ghani is demanding something or Ax2 is demanding something, they do it because the warlords that back them pressure them. Both men really have no power which is why most positions were given to warlords in the Karzai gov and the current gov has not even created a cabinet yet since there are two presidents and the warlords that back each one wants the positions themselves. In such a situation, the ANA will break up and the warlord militias will unite against the Taliban returning the country to the 90's.

[ComradePashtun]

Afghan politics as far as gov is concerned is controlled by warlords. If Ghani is demanding something or Ax2 is demanding something, they do it because the warlords that back them pressure them. Both men really have no power which is why most positions were given to warlords in the Karzai gov and the current gov has not even created a cabinet yet since there are two presidents and the warlords that back each one wants the positions themselves. In such a situation, the ANA will break up and the warlord militias will unite against the Taliban returning the country to the 90's.

You talk out of your backside, as usual.

[khushal]

You talk out of your backside, as usual.

Your mad because you couldn't create another Pakistan. But you should have realized that even British/pakistan couldnt create a pakistan inside FATA for more than 150 years, how could you do it in 15 years. Go get an education in history and use logic.