The US has decided to seek "the right Taliban leadership" without waiting for Pakistan to play its role in persuading the rebels to join peace talks with the Afghan government. Anwar Iqbal reports from Washington.
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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo revealed a new strategy for Taliban negotiations at a congressional hearing earlier this week, where he also claimed that US officials and diplomats were "being treated badly" in Pakistan.
"The effort (is) to apply all elements of the United States' government pressure, so that the Taliban will come to the negotiating table," he told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "Now we need to find the right leadership inside the Taliban to participate in those discussions."
The two statements – about mistreatment of diplomats and going ahead with the Afghan peace process without Pakistan – confirm that relations between the two allies are at their lowest ebb.
Marvin Weinbaum, a scholar of South Asian affairs in Washington, recalled that earlier this month, both the US and Pakistan also imposed strict travel restrictions on each other's diplomats.
"What strikes me most is that both sides are taking actions toward resident diplomats in a way usually reserved for a country's enemies, not its partners," he told DW.
Seventeen years after the US invasion of Afghanistan, the war-torn country remains in the grip of Islamist violence. A string of deadly attacks in the last year suggests militants are stronger than ever.
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Fragile security
Repeated attacks in Afghanistan in 2018 and 2019 have killed and wounded hundreds of innocent Afghans, and shown the world the fragile and worsening state of security in the conflict-stricken country. The incidents have plunged war-weary Afghan citizens into a state of despair and highlighted the limitations faced by the government in Kabul in ensuring public security.
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A long series of attacks
The violent incidents have made Afghanistan once again a staple of international headlines. Outfits like the Taliban and the "Islamic State" (IS) have claimed responsibility for the attacks. The Afghan government is under heavy pressure to restore security and take back territory controlled by a number of insurgent groups, including the Taliban and IS.
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Spring offensive
In 2018, the Taliban announced the start of their annual spring offensive, dismissing an offer of peace talks by President Ashraf Ghani. The militants, fighting to restore their version of strict Islamic law to Afghanistan, said their campaign was a response to a more aggressive US military strategy adopted in 2017, which aims to force the militants into peace talks.
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Trump's Afghanistan policy
US President Donald Trump unveiled a new strategy for Afghanistan in 2017, vowing to deploy more troops to train and advise Afghan security forces. Trump also pledged to support Afghan troops in their war against the Taliban and maintain US presence in the country for as long as there was a need for it. In 2019, he reversed course and promised a troop pullout.
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Afghan peace process
Despite President Ghani's offer in February 2018 for peace talks "without preconditions," the Taliban had until 2019 shown no interest, dismissing the peace overtures as a "conspiracy."
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Pakistani support
Pakistan has been under pressure from Kabul and Washington to stop offering safe havens to militants blamed for attacks in Afghanistan, a charge Islamabad denies and insists that its influence over the insurgents has been exaggerated. Kabul and Islamabad regularly trade accusations of harboring the other country's militants and the harsh language has underscored the strains between them.
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Role of the warlords
Apart from the Taliban, Afghan warlords exercise massive influence in the country. Last year, Hizb-i-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar returned to Kabul after a 20-year exile to play an active role in Afghan politics. In September 2016, the Afghan government signed a deal with Hekmatyar in the hope that other warlords and militant groups would seek better ties with Kabul.
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An inefficient government
In the midst of an endless battle for power, President Ghani's approval ratings continue to plummet. Rampant corruption in the Afghan government and a long tug-of-war within the US-brokered national unity government has had a negative impact on the government's efforts to eradicate terrorism.
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A new power arrangement
But what Secretary Pompeo told the House committee goes beyond diplomatic tensions and underlines Washington's need to find a peaceful solution in Afghanistan before public pressure in the US against this unpopular war forces the Trump administration to pull out from the strife-torn country.
Pompeo said that once the goal of finding the right Taliban leadership is achieved, the US administration will bring "lots of different groups" together to form the next power structure in Afghanistan. To bring them on the table, the Trump will assure each of these ethnic and tribal groups that their interests will be protected in the new power arrangement in Afghanistan, he said.
This was one of those rare statements in which a senior US official did not emphasise Pakistan's role in supplementing US efforts for bringing peace and stability to Afghanistan.
But a State Department spokesperson, when contacted by DW, said the US still wants Pakistan to "take irreversible and decisive actions to eliminate any and all sanctuaries on its territory, from which terrorists are able to mount attacks in Afghanistan and the region."
While Pakistanis agree in principle with the US position, they point out that they have already lost more than 50,000 civilians and soldiers in the fight against terrorism and they do not want to jump into yet another unending war.
They argue that sooner or later, the Americans will leave Afghanistan and they will be left alone to face the consequences. Both in public statements and private conversations with their American counterparts, Pakistanis insist that there's no military solution to the Afghan conflict.
US officials also say that there's no military solution but they argue that this is why they want Pakistan to work with US and Afghan forces to make the Taliban realize that they too cannot win this war.
"We can see that there is not a military solution to achieving the stability and peace in Afghanistan," Pompeo said, adding that this is why Washington wants to pressurize the Taliban into cooperating with international efforts for bringing peace to the war-ravaged country.
Pompeo noted that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was willing to participate in the peace talks with the Taliban and the next step would be to find the right Taliban leadership, which would work with the government in Kabul.
"We have lots of different groups that need to view being part of the solution" and they need to be included in this process as well, Pompeo added.
Pakistan's relations with the US, already strained, have rapidly deteriorated under the Trump administration, which has stopped all military assistance to the country over its alleged links with the Haqqani network. And recently, the administration also distributed a questionnaire among senior US lawmakers, asking them how they want Washington to deal with Islamabad, once a strong ally in the war against terror.
"Relations between the United States and Pakistan can be challenging at times," said the State Department spokesperson. "We engage on a daily basis with Pakistan in an effort to foster a strong strategic relationship."
But such a relationship must be based on "our many shared interests, maintaining a continuous and intensive dialogue through both civilian and military channels," the US official added.
"Both Pakistan and the United States have benefitted greatly in the past from our relationship, and we hope that it has a bright future as well," said the spokesperson, adding that to ensure this, Pakistan must take a decisive action against terrorists.
Michael Kugelman, another US expert on South Asian affairs, noted that the relationship between the US and Pakistan has struggled and suffered in a big way ever since President Trump announced his new South Asia strategy last August.
"And it will make it all the more difficult for the two sides to recapture the requisite trust and goodwill to move forward and bring a semblance of stability to the bilateral relationship," he told DW.
Washington's effort to find a solution in Afghanistan without involving Pakistan also endorses this view, indicating that the Trump administration does not see its relations with Islamabad improving any time soon. And it wants Pakistan to realize that while its support is important, Washington has other options too.
Jalaluddin Haqqani, the founder of the Haqqani Network, has passed away after a protracted illness, the Taliban announced. Why is the Pakistan-based outfit considered one of the most feared militant groups in the region?
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Remnants of the Afghan war against Soviets
The Haqqani Network was formed by Jalaluddin Haqqani, who fought against Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. In 1995, the Haqqani Network allied with the Taliban and the two groups captured the Afghan capital Kabul in 1996. In 2012, the US designated the group a terrorist organization. On September 4, 2018, the Taliban announced that Jalaluddin passed away after a long illness.
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An Islamist ideologue
Jalaluddin Haqqani was born in 1939 in the Afghan province Paktia. He studied at Darul Uloom Haqqania, which was founded in 1947 by the father of one of Pakistan's most prominent religious leaders, Maulana Sami ul Haq. Darul Uloom Haqqania is known for its alleged ties with the Taliban and other extremist groups.
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Jalaluddin Haqqani as Taliban minister
Jalaluddin was made minister for Afghan tribal affairs under the Taliban rule. He remained in the post until the US toppled the Taliban regime in 2001. After the Taliban leader Mullah Omar, Jalaluddin was considered the most influential militant figure in Afghanistan. Jalaluddin also had close links with the former al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden.
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Where is the Haqqani Network based?
Security experts say the command center of the group is based in Miranshah city of Pakistan's North Waziristan region along the Afghan border. US and Afghan officials claim the Haqqani Network is backed by the Pakistani military, a charge denied by Pakistani authorities. Washington says the group's fighters launch attacks on foreign and local troops and civilians inside Afghanistan.
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The Haqqani heir
It is believed that Jalaluddin Haqqani died in 2015, but his group denied those reports at the time. The network is now headed by Sirajuddin Haqqani, Jalaluddin's son. Sirajuddin is also the deputy chief of the Taliban.
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Who is Sirajuddin Haqqani?
Although there isn't much credible information available about Sirajuddin Haqqani, security experts say he spent his childhood in the Pakistani city of Miranshah. He studied at Darul Uloom Haqqania, situated in Peshawar's suburbs. Sirajuddin is believed to be an expert on military affairs. Some analysts say Sirajuddin's views are more hard line than his father's.
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Anas Haqqani's death sentence
One of Jalaluddin's sons is Anas Haqqani, whose mother hailed from the United Arab Emirates. He is currently in the custody of the Afghan government and is facing the death penalty. The Haqqani Network has warned Kabul of dire consequences if Afghan authorities hang Anas Haqqani.
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How big is the Haqqani Network?
Research institutes and Afghan affairs experts say the group has between three and ten thousand fighters. The network allegedly receives most of its funding from the Gulf countries. The Haqqani Network is also involved in kidnappings and extortion through which it funds its operations.
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Ties with other militant groups
The Haqqanis have close relations with other regional and international terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda, the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Lashkar-e-Taiba and Central Asian Islamist groups. Jalauddin Haqqani was not only close to bin Laden, but also had ties with al Qaeda's current chief Ayman al-Zawahiri.
