Pak-US relations

The US continues to maintain a hardened stance towards Pakistan - just last month it led a campaign to put this country on the 'grey list' of Financial Action Task Force - and Pakistan to iterate its position "we will do what's in our national interest." Yet in a significant move, Washington has responded to Pakistan's longstanding demand to take action against TTP terrorists using Afghan soil to launch cross-border attacks. In a recent announcement, the US Department of Justice put head money on three TTP leaders: $5 million reward for information on TTP chief Mullah Fazlullah, and $3 million each for the leaders of its two affiliated groups, Mangal Bagh and Abul Wali khan. A couple of days earlier, 21 TTP terrorists, including Fazlullah's son, were killed in drone strikes inside Afghanistan.
The head money announcement came close on the heels of Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua's visit to Washington where she held two high-level meetings at the White House and the State Department. And the message, according to her, was that "both sides want positive engagement." It is worth noting in the context that last month Commander of the US Central Command, General Joseph Votel - who was present at Janjua's White House meeting - told the House Armed Services Committee "we are now beginning to see positive indicators" from Pakistan, though in terms of a strategic shift "not equal to actions that we would like to see them take." The divergence in the two sides' views of the situation is hardly surprising. As the Foreign Secretary explained after her discussions in Washington, there are differences on modalities. Pakistan "wants less [emphasis] on kinetics and more on reconciliation, as ultimately it's reconciliation that produces results."
Because of its location and blood ties among people living astride the Durand Line no other country has as much interest as has Pakistan in seeing peace and stability return to Afghanistan. It has warmly welcomed the recent peace negotiations offer the Kabul government made to the Taliban. The Taliban have not formally responded yet to President Ashraf Ghani's unconditional talks offer. But they are likely to come up with a conditional answer. In the meanwhile, it is unfair for the US to expect this country to fight the Taliban so as to force them to negotiate. Also complicating the matters is President Trump's policy statement of last August in which he assigned Pakistan's arch-rival, India, an enhanced role in Afghanistan. In any event, based on its old contacts Pakistan can, perhaps, nudge the Taliban to the negotiating table, but it cannot compel them to accept any peace deal against their wishes. It no longer has the influence on them it may have had in the past. The Foreign Secretary made a sensible suggestion when she told journalists in Washington, "the Afghan government has to offer incentives to the Taliban to come to the table."