Haley says UN must step up pressure on Pakistan
Returning from a UN Security Council visit to Afghanistan, US ambassador Nikki Haley on Wednesday stressed the Kabul government wants world powers to step up pressure on Pakistan.
Haley joined the 14 other council envoys for talks with top Afghan leaders in Kabul at the weekend as the government considers holding peace talks with the Taliban to end decades of insurgency.
“They feel confident that the Taliban will be coming to the table,” Haley told reporters at UN headquarters.
While the peace talks will be Afghan-led, the Kabul government did request that the Security Council weigh in to bring Pakistan onboard.
“They did ask us for consensus to put further pressure on Pakistan to come to the table and change their behaviour,” Haley said.
The Afghan government is making strides towards stability, she said, and “continue to make ten steps forward and with Pakistan they feel like they continue
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to take steps backward.”
“As long as they are supporting terrorism in Pakistan, the Afghan community is continuing to feel it is not safe,” she said.
Haley did not specify what measures could be taken to pressure Pakistan, but the council does have the power to impose sanctions.
US officials believe that Pakistan’s intelligence agency and military have long helped fund and arm the Taliban to counter rising Indian influence in Afghanistan, whose government is backed by the US.
WHITE HOUSE DEFENDS TRUMP’S ‘LIES AND DECEIT’ REMARKS
The US believes that suspending security assistance to Pakistan is important to put pressure on it to act against terror safe havens, the White House has said as it defended President Donald Trump’s remarks that Islamabad had given America nothing but “lies and deceit”.
When asked if the White House stands by the comments the president, Trump’s press secretary Sarah Sanders responded by saying “yes”.