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Pakistan leaders close ranks against US
By Matthew Green and Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad
Pakistan’s army and civilian leaders have closed ranks in defiance of mounting US pressure on them to cut ties with Afghan militants, as fears grew that Washington’s recent rhetorical attacks might be a prelude to military strikes.
The country’s military elite gathered for a meeting at its headquarters in Rawalpindi on Sunday as Yusuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan’s prime minister, telephoned opposition politicians to rally support for the government’s showdown with Washington.
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Angry at the failure of years of behind-the-scenes pressure to persuade Pakistan to stop backing Afghan insurgents, the US launched a blistering public assault on its army last week, accusing it of directly supporting attacks in Kabul.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, levelled the strongest allegations made by the US against Pakistan in a decade when he accused the army’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency of supporting attacks by the Haqqani network of Afghan insurgents.
US officials believe the ISI directed the Haqqani to stage a rocket attack this month on the US embassy in Kabul and a truck bombing that wounded 77 coalition troops, among many other operations in Afghanistan. The Haqqani network, which is allied to the Taliban and al-Qaeda, is regarded as the most deadly Afghan insurgent faction.
General Ashfaq Kayani, the powerful head of Pakistan’s military, has rejected the allegations. Pakistan’s civilian leadership has fallen into line behind the army as the stand-off with the US has intensified – a telling sign of the power the generals still wield in a country that has experienced decades of military rule.
“We strongly reject assertions of complicity with the Haqqanis or of proxy war,” Mr Gilani said on Saturday. “The allegations betray a confusion and policy disarray within the US establishment on the way forward in Afghanistan.”
He added: “Let’s avoid mutual recrimination and recommit ourselves to working together for eliminating terrorism and for reconciliation and peace in Afghanistan.”
Mr Gilani ordered Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan’s foreign minister, to cut short a trip to the US on Sunday to attend a planned all-party meeting to discuss the crisis. Ms Khar had warned the US last week that it risked losing an ally if it maintained its stance on the Haqqani network.
Seeking to keep channels open, General James Mattis, the head of the US central command, visited Pakistan for talks with Gen Kayani and other senior officers at the weekend, Pakistani and US officials said.
The confrontation has exposed the contradictions in the fraught US alliance with Pakistan, which neither country can afford to end but which has been strained by escalating violence in Afghanistan and the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2.
The US is giving Pakistan’s military billions of dollars in aid to fight Pakistani militants in its tribal belt along the Afghan border. But while the army has suffered heavy casualties fighting Pakistan’s Taliban movement, most independent analysts believe the ISI continues to back the Haqqani network as a tool to project power in Afghanistan and blunt Indian influence on Kabul.
With the US planning to withdraw combat forces from Afghanistan by 2014, and uncertainty over the country’s future escalating in the wake of last week’s assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, Afghanistan’s former president, Pakistan has little incentive to cut loose its most loyal Afghan proxy, experts say.
“The Haqqani network is becoming an even more important asset for Pakistan,” said Shaun Gregory, director of the Pakistan Security Research Unit at Bradford University. “It is emerging as an increasingly powerful player in the region.”
The war of words with Washington has left Pakistan’s civilian leaders in the awkward position of having to maintain the fiction that Pakistan’s army does not support the network, underscoring the military’s dominance in security and foreign policy.
The strong language used by Adm Mullen – who described the Haqqani network as “veritable arm” of the ISI – has revived fears in Pakistan that the US might be planning some form of military strike on its bases in the enclave of North Waziristan.
“There is a popular feeling that the US is gearing up for some kind of adventurism, possibly military action in Waziristan,” said an official in Pakistan’s foreign ministry, adding that their were efforts being made by both sides to overcome the rift.
Leon Panetta, the US secretary of defence, has implied that US forces might consider some form of military operation – though the Pentagon would have to balance the potential military gains against the broader risk of destabilising nuclear-armed Pakistan.
Any unilateral US operation would trigger a fierce anti-American backlash in Pakistan, potentially destabilise the fragile civilian government and serve as a persuasive recruiting sergeant for Islamist militant groups and political parties.
The US is also reluctant to endanger counter-terrorism co-operation with the ISI on hunting other militant groups, or a programme of drone strikes that has proved an effective weapon against al-Qaeda leaders sheltering near the Afghan border.
Pakistan leaders close ranks against US
By Matthew Green and Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad
Pakistan’s army and civilian leaders have closed ranks in defiance of mounting US pressure on them to cut ties with Afghan militants, as fears grew that Washington’s recent rhetorical attacks might be a prelude to military strikes.
The country’s military elite gathered for a meeting at its headquarters in Rawalpindi on Sunday as Yusuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan’s prime minister, telephoned opposition politicians to rally support for the government’s showdown with Washington.
More
On this story
Angry at the failure of years of behind-the-scenes pressure to persuade Pakistan to stop backing Afghan insurgents, the US launched a blistering public assault on its army last week, accusing it of directly supporting attacks in Kabul.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, levelled the strongest allegations made by the US against Pakistan in a decade when he accused the army’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency of supporting attacks by the Haqqani network of Afghan insurgents.
US officials believe the ISI directed the Haqqani to stage a rocket attack this month on the US embassy in Kabul and a truck bombing that wounded 77 coalition troops, among many other operations in Afghanistan. The Haqqani network, which is allied to the Taliban and al-Qaeda, is regarded as the most deadly Afghan insurgent faction.
General Ashfaq Kayani, the powerful head of Pakistan’s military, has rejected the allegations. Pakistan’s civilian leadership has fallen into line behind the army as the stand-off with the US has intensified – a telling sign of the power the generals still wield in a country that has experienced decades of military rule.
“We strongly reject assertions of complicity with the Haqqanis or of proxy war,” Mr Gilani said on Saturday. “The allegations betray a confusion and policy disarray within the US establishment on the way forward in Afghanistan.”
He added: “Let’s avoid mutual recrimination and recommit ourselves to working together for eliminating terrorism and for reconciliation and peace in Afghanistan.”
Mr Gilani ordered Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan’s foreign minister, to cut short a trip to the US on Sunday to attend a planned all-party meeting to discuss the crisis. Ms Khar had warned the US last week that it risked losing an ally if it maintained its stance on the Haqqani network.
Seeking to keep channels open, General James Mattis, the head of the US central command, visited Pakistan for talks with Gen Kayani and other senior officers at the weekend, Pakistani and US officials said.
The confrontation has exposed the contradictions in the fraught US alliance with Pakistan, which neither country can afford to end but which has been strained by escalating violence in Afghanistan and the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2.
The US is giving Pakistan’s military billions of dollars in aid to fight Pakistani militants in its tribal belt along the Afghan border. But while the army has suffered heavy casualties fighting Pakistan’s Taliban movement, most independent analysts believe the ISI continues to back the Haqqani network as a tool to project power in Afghanistan and blunt Indian influence on Kabul.
With the US planning to withdraw combat forces from Afghanistan by 2014, and uncertainty over the country’s future escalating in the wake of last week’s assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, Afghanistan’s former president, Pakistan has little incentive to cut loose its most loyal Afghan proxy, experts say.
“The Haqqani network is becoming an even more important asset for Pakistan,” said Shaun Gregory, director of the Pakistan Security Research Unit at Bradford University. “It is emerging as an increasingly powerful player in the region.”
The war of words with Washington has left Pakistan’s civilian leaders in the awkward position of having to maintain the fiction that Pakistan’s army does not support the network, underscoring the military’s dominance in security and foreign policy.
The strong language used by Adm Mullen – who described the Haqqani network as “veritable arm” of the ISI – has revived fears in Pakistan that the US might be planning some form of military strike on its bases in the enclave of North Waziristan.
“There is a popular feeling that the US is gearing up for some kind of adventurism, possibly military action in Waziristan,” said an official in Pakistan’s foreign ministry, adding that their were efforts being made by both sides to overcome the rift.
Leon Panetta, the US secretary of defence, has implied that US forces might consider some form of military operation – though the Pentagon would have to balance the potential military gains against the broader risk of destabilising nuclear-armed Pakistan.
Any unilateral US operation would trigger a fierce anti-American backlash in Pakistan, potentially destabilise the fragile civilian government and serve as a persuasive recruiting sergeant for Islamist militant groups and political parties.
The US is also reluctant to endanger counter-terrorism co-operation with the ISI on hunting other militant groups, or a programme of drone strikes that has proved an effective weapon against al-Qaeda leaders sheltering near the Afghan border.
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