Pakistan has crucial role to play in Afghan peace process: US official

A senior American official, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Alice South and Central Asia Alice Wells on Tuesday said Pakistan has a very important role to play in the Afghan peace process.

“We believe that Pakistan can certainly help to facilitate talks and to take actions that will put pressure on and encourage the Taliban to move forward towards a politically negotiated settlement,” Wells said in response to a question at a briefing on the just concluded Kabul conference in Afghanistan, Hindustan Times reported.

“And our engagement with Pakistan is on how we can work together, on how we can address Pakistan’s legitimate concerns and Afghanistan’s stability through a negotiated process as well,” she said.

Wells however stated that United States has not seen a “decisive and sustained” change in the behaviour of Pakistan, even after the Trump administration announced a $2 billion security assistance freeze to Islamabad nearly two months ago.

“We’ve not seen decisive and sustained changes yet in Pakistan’s behaviour, but certainly we are continuing to engage with Pakistan over areas where we think they can play a helpful role in changing the calculus of the Taliban,” said Wells.

“Pakistani officials have underscored, they see a variety of issues, whether it’s border management or refugees or terrorism that emanates from ungoverned space in Afghanistan, as important issues, and we would agree that all of these need to be resolved during the course of a reconciliation process,” Wells said.

Pakistan has concerns over border management; over the Tehreek-e-Taliban; Pakistan’s presence in ungoverned space in Afghanistan; refugee concerns, she said. 

Noting that the Afghanistan-Pakistan relationship is quite important, she said the US is supportive of the efforts to improve the bilateral relationship.

The two countries have exchanged visits over the last several months to establish a framework agreement, to enhance the bilateral relationship. - Reaad More

Pakistan has crucial role to play in Afghan peace process: US official ...