U.S. tries to safeguard Afghan peace push from India-Pakistan crisis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is trying to prevent simmering tensions between India and Pakistan from impacting a third country: Afghanistan, where a fragile peace push is underway to try to end more than 17 years of war with Taliban insurgents.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has been publicly focused on lowering tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals since a Feb. 14 suicide car bomb in an Indian-controlled area of Kashmir triggered the first Indian air strikes inside of Pakistan since a 1971 war.

Senior U.S. officials told Reuters that as the United States spoke with senior Pakistani officials, emphasizing the need to lower the risk of conflict with India, Islamabad privately offered warnings on Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials said their ability to support Afghan peace talks could be in jeopardy in the event of a full-blown crisis, U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“They’ll stop being a facilitator, they will stop the pressure they are applying” on the Taliban, one U.S. official said, recounting Pakistani warnings conveyed to Washington.

The United States has likewise accused Pakistan of ties to Taliban militants who are fighting in neighboring Afghanistan against American and U.S.-backed Afghan government forces. - Read More

U.S. tries to safeguard Afghan peace push from India-Pakistan crisis ...