US, Pakistan to stay engaged to defuse growing tensions

washington — The United States and Pakistan are sending two key visitors — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal — to each other’s capitals, as efforts to mend their troubled relations continue, say media reports.

The Pakistani Interior Minister, Ahsan Iqbal, arrives in Washington on October 11, a week after a three-day visit by Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif.

Secretary Tillerson plans to arrive in Islamabad late this month and he will be followed by Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis early next month, the Dawnonline and The Express News reported.

In his August 21 speech, US President Donald Trump criticised Pakistan for allegedly sheltering ‘agents of chaos’ — a reference to the Taleban who have been fighting an insurgency in Afghanistan that American forces have been unable to quell in 17 years. Islamabad scoffed at Trump’s accusation, saying it would not become a ‘scapegoat’ for the US failure in Afghanistan, say reports.

The talks for salvaging US-Pakistan partnership from a possible collapse began in New York late last month, when Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi met US Vice President Mike Pence on the sidelines of a session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Addressing a Washington-based think tank — the US Institute of Peace (USIP) — on the last day of his visit, Asif said his meeting with Secretary Tillerson was “very good” but he did not have similar feelings about his second meeting, with US National Security Adviser HR McMaster, whom he met at the White House early Thursday.

Reports in US media on Washington’s strategy for normalising relations with Pakistan suggest that while Tillerson would go with a soft, diplomatic message, Secretary Mattis would explain to Pakistanis that continuing its current policies could have adverse consequences.

At recent congressional hearings, Mattis said the United States was willing to give Pakistan “one more chance” but if it fails, Washington could take punitive measures, such as sanctions, expanding drone strikes and de-listing Pakistan as a major non-Nato ally. “They’ll find themselves diplomatically isolated, they’ll find themselves economically in increasing trouble as countries that are damaged by this terrorism coming out of there say enough is enough and take steps,” said Mattis while explaining to a Congressional panel how Pakistan can be persuaded to change its strategy.

The Pakistani foreign minister’s remarks at the USIP, however, made it obvious that Washington’s tough talk is not having desired result. He rejected Washington’s accusation that Pakistan allows terrorist safe havens on its soil as “hollow allegations.” “That is not the way you talk to 70-year-old friends,” Asif said.

“When someone tells us it’s the last chance, we do not accept that. Last chance, first chance, second chance, not acceptable to us. We want to be treated with respect and dignity. We do not want anything else.”

Observers in Washington say tough remarks from both sides reflect their frustration with the lack of progress in normalising bilateral relations.— Agencies