Amidst much unease among lawmakers and US commentators over Pakistan’s duplicity in Afghanistan, U.S. Secretary of State antoine blinken A congressional hearing acknowledged that Islamabad has played a role in “relentlessly hedging its bets about the future of Afghanistan”, and in light of this, the US is deciding what role Pakistan needs to play in the region. to reevaluate the relationship. .
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“(Pakistan’s role) is that of harboring members of the Taliban, including Haqqani… it is he who is also involved in cooperation with us on various points on counter terrorism. It has many interests that are in conflict – an obvious conflict – with us,” Blinken said, responding to lawmakers who questioned him on Pakistan’s “dual” role in Afghanistan over the past two decades.
As a result, the US, going forward, will insist that “every country, including Pakistan, meets the expectations of the international community to receive any form of legitimacy or any support from a Taliban-led government.” Blinken said.
But lawmakers cutting across party lines have called for more serious action against Islamabad for its subversive role, including ending its status as a major non-NATO ally (MNNA), which has cost American taxpayers money. Opened the way for billions of dollars in military and financial aid. The US bankrolling of Pakistan came even as its support of Taliban militants claimed the lives of US soldiers in Afghanistan.
In a follow-up Senate hearing on Tuesday, Senator James Risk, the Republican ranking member of the Committee on Foreign Relations, said any country backing the Taliban “should risk a strategic deterioration in its relationship with the US,” even That Blinken warned Pakistan against it. Hasty recognition of the Taliban government.
However, outside congressional hearings, Washington’s two-decade-long acknowledgment is in doubt, and what one senator said was Pakistan’s “double-handedness” – and whether the US has the advantage of changing it.
Sharp criticism of Washington’s treatment of Pakistan’s children, some US commentators are now calling for outright sanctions against Islamabad, while lawmakers are temporarily proposing less severe measures.
“The American defeat for the Taliban and, by extension, Pakistan is a disgrace inherent in an American military failure, but the corrosiveness and short-sightedness of America’s own political debate. It is a blow that the United States could have avoided, but not without it. must take a response. Simply put, it is time to sanction Pakistan,” Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote recently.
In his analysis, Rubin revealed that a former head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency admitted to him over tea at an Islamabad club that Pakistan was playing both sides of the issue—supporting the Taliban insurgency. Charges accusing the United States of extortion so that the Pentagon could re-supply its forces. He wrote, “From an ISI point of view, it was like hitting the jackpot. Since the 9/11 attacks, the United States has given Pakistan nearly $23 billion in security aid and Coalition aid funds.”
Although subsequent administrations had no appetite to impose sanctions on Pakistan – and no alternative for that matter, given that it provided a supply line to Afghanistan, Washington was more likely to benefit from the US exit from the country. have hope.
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