US tries to safeguard Afghan peace push from crisis

WASHINGTON: The United States is trying to prevent simmering tensions between India and Pakistan from impacting a third country: Afghanistan, where a fragile peace push is underway to try to end more than 17 years of war with Taliban insurgents.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has been publicly focused on lowering tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals since a Feb 14 suicide car bomb in an Indian-controlled area of Kashmir triggered the first Indian airstrikes inside of Pakistan since a 1971 war.

Senior US officials said as the United States spoke with senior Pakistani officials, emphasising the need to lower the risk of conflict with India, Islamabad privately offered warnings on Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials said their ability to support Afghan peace talks could be in jeopardy in the event of a full-blown crisis, US officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“They’ll stop being a facilitator, they will stop the pressure they are applying” on the Taliban, one US official said, recounting Pakistani warnings conveyed to Washington.

Pakistan has publicly denied any role in the suicide bombing. But the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group claimed responsibility for it, and India has long accused Islamabad of supporting them.

The United States has likewise accused Pakistan of ties to Taliban militants.

Reuters has previously reported, however, that US officials have recently seen a positive shift in Pakistan’s behaviour.

Pakistan has played a behind-thescenes role in supporting US peace talks with the Taliban, including by facilitating travel to negotiations.

Current and former US officials caution that Islamabad could again choose to act as a spoiler.

“I don’t believe that Pakistan has the capability to straight out make peace happen in Afghanistan, but they definitely have the capability to make peace not (happen),” said Laurel Miller, a former senior State Department official.