(MENAFN- Gulf Times) US-Pakistan
relations hit a new low in 2017 and a series of high-level contacts
between the two countries exposed the weakness in this relationship
instead of strengthening it.
It was also during 2017 that the US
administration announced a new strategy for winning the war in
Afghanistan, urging Pakistan to join the US-led efforts to defeat the
Taliban in the battlefield.
The policy recognises Pakistan's right to reject the US offer but warns that there will be consequences if it decides to do so.
In
statements, US President Donald Trump, his vice-president Mike Pence,
secretaries of defence and state, and national security advisers and
other senior officials highlighted the consequences that the policy
hints at, from stopping US economic and military assistance to raising
doubts about Pakistan's ability to provide 'responsible stewardship to
its nuclear assets.
Some officials warned that Pakistan could 'lose territory if it did not eradicate terrorist safe havens from its soil.
Others said the US could take 'unilateral action in areas of divergence with Pakistan.
The
statements, along with the pronouncement that India now is the
strongest US ally, alarmed Pakistan, forcing it to look for other
options to protect its interests.
Initially, Pakistan reacted
cautiously to these threats, but on Thursday, military spokesman Major
General Asif Ghafoor told the United States and Afghanistan that it is
time for them to do more for Pakistan, instead of asking Islamabad to do
so.
'No organised infrastructure of any banned organisation is
present in Pakistan. We have fought an imposed and imported war twice in
Pakistan and now we cannot do any more for anyone, he said.
But the
same day, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered to partner with
Pakistan against terrorism, indicating that the Trump administration
still hopes to persuade Islamabad to accept its demands despite the
recent bitterness.
The Pakistani establishment's strong reaction to
these demands followed a warning from Vice-President Pence that
President 'Trump has put Pakistan on notice, and that 'Pakistan has
much to gain from partnering with the United States, and much to lose by
continuing to harbour criminals and terrorists.
The warnings and high-level visits to Pakistan started in August.
In
the last four months, half a dozen US officials have visited Islamabad
to persuade Pakistan to support the new US policy, including Secretary
of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defence James Mattis, Centcom chief
General Joseph Votel, and Trump South Asia adviser Lisa Curtis and
Assistant Secretary of State Alice G Wells.
The visitors met key
Pakistani leaders including Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Army
Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, and ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence)
chief Lieutenant General Naveed Mukhtar.
However, the only positive
comment that came out of such contacts was the expression of a desire to
continue working for 'a common ground.
Tillerson said after his
October visit that he told Pakistani leadership that Washington would
implement its new strategy with or without their support.
'And if you
don't want to do that, don't feel you can do it, we'll adjust our
tactics and our strategies to achieve the same objective a different
way, he said.
The next visitor was Mattis who repeated a US call on
the Pakistan government to 'do more after a meeting with Pakistani
leaders early this month.
This lack of progress in these contacts
shows differences between Islamabad and Washington over the new US
strategy which claims that Pakistan 'often gives safe haven to agents of
chaos, violence, and terror.
While announcing the new strategy,
Trump also said that the US has been 'paying Pakistan billions and
billions of dollars at the same time they are housing the very
terrorists that we are fighting but this must stop now.
Pakistan
says that US leaders continue to repeat a false claim that Islamabad
shelters terrorists and reminds them that friends 'do not put each
other on notice.
Michael Kugelman, deputy director for South Asia at
the US-based Wilson Centre, says he does not believe such threats could
change Pakistan's response to the US demand in the near future.
'From a Pakistani perspective, it makes perfect sense to have the Afghan Taliban in their corner, said Kugelman.
'Pakistan,
just like everyone else in the region, assumes that eventually, US
troops will withdraw from Afghanistan, he told Al Jazeera.
When that
withdrawal happens, Kugelman added, there was a risk of 'rampant
destabilisation and civil war in Afghanistan, and a relationship with
the Afghan Taliban would be valuable for Pakistan in that context.
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