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Amid the growing uneasiness marking its relations with the United States, Pakistan has begun to urge Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai to dump Washington and instead align with Islamabad and Beijing for help in striking a peace deal with the Taliban and rebuilding the economy.
Citing Afghan officials, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Gilani made the new pitch at a meeting with Karzai in Kabul on April 16, during which he “bluntly told Karzai that the Americans had failed them both”.
A larger game plan is also being perceived in Gilani’s reported counsel. With the US aiming to begin a pull-out of its troops from Afghanistan in July and complete most of the withdrawal by the end of 2014, the Pakistani move is being seen as part of a push to jockey for influence in that country as and when the Americans leave.
“Pakistan’s bid to cut the US out of Afghanistan’s future is the clearest sign to date that, as the nearly 10-year war’s endgame begins, tensions between Washington and Islamabad threaten to scuttle America’s prospects of ending the conflict on its own terms,” the Journal reported. Karzai’s spokesman Waheed Omar, however, was dismissive of the account, commenting: “Pakistan would not make such demands. But even if they did, the Afghan Government would never accept it.”
Pakistani Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani also promptly denied the report, noting in a Twitter message: “Reports claiming Gilani-Karzai discussion about Pakistan advising alignment away from US are inaccurate.”
As US-Pakistani relations are threatened with the former’s unrelenting drone attacks and the latter’s failure to dismantle terrorist safe havens in its lawless northwest tracts, the paper quoted Pakistani officials as saying that they no longer have an incentive to follow the American lead in their own backyard.
“Pakistan is sole guarantor of its own interest. We’re not looking for anyone else to protect us, especially the US. If they’re leaving, they’re leaving and they should go,” an unnamed senior official was quoted as saying. The Journal report came just days after publication of a secret US cable, released by WikiLeaks, that portrayed Pakistan’s ISI as a terrorist organisation just like Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Citing Afghan officials, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Gilani made the new pitch at a meeting with Karzai in Kabul on April 16, during which he “bluntly told Karzai that the Americans had failed them both”.
A larger game plan is also being perceived in Gilani’s reported counsel. With the US aiming to begin a pull-out of its troops from Afghanistan in July and complete most of the withdrawal by the end of 2014, the Pakistani move is being seen as part of a push to jockey for influence in that country as and when the Americans leave.
“Pakistan’s bid to cut the US out of Afghanistan’s future is the clearest sign to date that, as the nearly 10-year war’s endgame begins, tensions between Washington and Islamabad threaten to scuttle America’s prospects of ending the conflict on its own terms,” the Journal reported. Karzai’s spokesman Waheed Omar, however, was dismissive of the account, commenting: “Pakistan would not make such demands. But even if they did, the Afghan Government would never accept it.”
Pakistani Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani also promptly denied the report, noting in a Twitter message: “Reports claiming Gilani-Karzai discussion about Pakistan advising alignment away from US are inaccurate.”
As US-Pakistani relations are threatened with the former’s unrelenting drone attacks and the latter’s failure to dismantle terrorist safe havens in its lawless northwest tracts, the paper quoted Pakistani officials as saying that they no longer have an incentive to follow the American lead in their own backyard.
“Pakistan is sole guarantor of its own interest. We’re not looking for anyone else to protect us, especially the US. If they’re leaving, they’re leaving and they should go,” an unnamed senior official was quoted as saying. The Journal report came just days after publication of a secret US cable, released by WikiLeaks, that portrayed Pakistan’s ISI as a terrorist organisation just like Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
