Pakistan said on Monday US President Donald Trump has sought its help with faltering Afghan peace talks, part of intensifying efforts by Trump to end one of America’s longest wars.
Trump, in a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan, asked for Islamabad’s ‘support and facilitation’ in negotiating an end to the war and offered to renew the strained relationship, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The overture to Khan represents a sea change from Trump’s normally harsh rhetoric towards Pakistan, and will add to growing speculation that the United States is planning to pull out of Afghanistan in the near future.
A White House official said Trump had sent a letter to Imran Khan ‘requesting Pakistan’s full support for the US-led Afghan peace process’ and assistance to US special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad in a current trip to the region.
US officials have long been pushing Pakistan to lean on Taliban leaders, who Washington says are based inside Pakistan, to bring them to the negotiating table. “He has asked for Pakistan’s cooperation to bring the Taliban into talks,” Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said. Trump told Khan the Pakistan relationship was very important to the United States and to finding a solution to the Afghanistan conflict, he added. Trump has been open about his desire to bring home about 14,000 US troops who remain in Afghanistan as part of Resolute Support and a separate counter-terrorism mission aimed against militant groups such as al Qaeda and Islamic State.
“President Trump has also acknowledged that the war had cost both US and Pakistan. He has emphasized that Pakistan and US should explore opportunities to work together and renew partnership,” the Foreign Ministry said, adding that Pakistan is committed to playing a ‘facilitation role in good faith’.
Trump has appointed Afghan-born US diplomat Khalilzad as a special envoy for Afghanistan, tasking him with pushing through peace talks. Khalilzad on Sunday began an eight-country tour, which includes Pakistan, Russia and Qatar, to promote peace and convince the Taliban to join negotiations.
In Trump’s letter, “the president recognizes that Pakistan has the ability to deny the Taliban sanctuary on its territory. The letter also makes clear that Pakistan’s assistance with the Afghan peace process is fundamental to building an enduring US-Pakistan partnership,” the White House official said.
Officially allies in fighting terrorism, Pakistan and the United States have a complicated relationship, bound by Washington’s dependence on Pakistan to supply its troops in Afghanistan but plagued by accusations Islamabad is playing a double game.
Last month, Trump said in an interview Pakistan doesn’t ‘do a damn thing’ for the United States despite billions of dollars in US aid, adding that Pakistani officials knew of former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s location before his killing by US troops in a 2011 raid inside Pakistan.
Khan hit back by saying the United States should not blame Pakistan for its failings in Afghanistan. Pakistani officials, who deny offering safe havens to the Afghan Taliban, say their influence on the group has waned over the years.
Last week, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he had formed a 12-strong team to negotiate peace with the Taliban, but warned that implementation of any deal would take at least five years.
Published in Daily Times, December 4th 2018.
