Need for sustained pressure on Pak to act against terrorists: Former US diplomats

They said that continued US pressure is needed to induce Pakistani cooperation in reducing the violence

Putting sustained and intensified pressure on Pakistan is the only viable option for America to make it act against terror networks and co-operate on the fragile Afghan peace process, former US diplomats have said.

"At this juncture, sustained and intensified pressure on Pakistan offers the only viable path to advancing the reconciliation process in a way that does not turn Afghanistan into a launching pad for terrorism and extremism," former diplomats Zalmay Khalilzad and James Dobbins said in a joint op-ed in the Newsweek.

Khalilzad was the US Ambassadors to the UN, Afghanistan and Iran during the Bush Administration, while Dobbins was the Special US Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan under the current Obama Administration.

The op-ed has been written in the context of the upcoming meeting of Afghanistan, Pakistan, US and China to revive the Afghan peace process with the Taliban, the article by the two former American diplomats assumes significance for India in the aftermath of Pathankot terrorist attack.

"Continued US pressure is needed to induce Pakistani cooperation in reducing the violence," they wrote.

"Congress withheld nearly a third of the military assistance allocated to Pakistan for 2015 due to Islamabad's failure to take meaningful action against the Haqqani network. An even larger proportion of the assistance should be conditioned in the coming year on Islamabad closing down the Haqqani network and Taliban military in the country," Khalilzad and Dobbins said.

Another step that would steer Pakistan in a more cooperative direction is for the US to move urgently in addressing the gaps in Afghan capabilities, they wrote.

They added that Washington should not rule out deploying some additional forces and easing rules of engagement for targeting the Taliban and ISIS targets.

They argued that US and Afghanistan should focus less on fostering talks and more on persuading Pakistan to take action against those engaged in terrorism and violence.

"While opening peace talks could be a positive step, it will only yield fruit if Pakistani authorities also begin to close down Afghan Taliban military operations," they asserted.

They said Pakistan's interest in a negotiated settlement to the Afghan war seems real enough, but its army has never been willing to take the very steps most likely to advance the process, which are to close down Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network operations in Pakistan and imprison any of their leaders not actively negotiating peace with Afghanistan.