Pakistan has a role in reconciliation process: Karzai

Afghanistan will also involve Pakistan when it seeks reconciliation with the Taliban leaders, says Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

In a joint appearance with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Mr Karzai also drew a distinction between the processes of reintegration and reconciliation, noting that while one involves Taliban foot soldiers, the other would require the involvement of the Taliban leadership.“Reconciliation is an entirely different issue that’s with the leadership mostly beyond our reach and mostly in our neighbours in Pakistan, where we’ll have Pakistan also involved and a lot of regional questions involved there,” said Mr Karzai.Diplomatic observers in Washington see Mr Karzai’s willingness to involve Pakistan as a major concession from a leader who until recently was opposed to giving it any role in this process.They noted that the offer to involve Pakistan followed three days of intense negotiations between the US and Afghan experts who accompanied Mr Karzai to Washington to participate in the summit-level talks.Mr Karzai’s offer to involve Pakistan in the reconciliatory process was even more significant because it was made in the presence of Secretary Clinton. The two appeared at the US Institute of Peace on Thursday afternoon for a discussion on Afghan-US relations in the context of Mr Karzai’s four-day visit to Washington.Secretary Clinton availed this opportunity to clarify an earlier statement in which she warned Islamabad of “very severe consequences” if a successful attempt on the US soil was traced back to Pakistan.She recalled that in the same interview she also had stressed the importance of a strategic relationship between the two countries.
“I started by talking about the importance of the strategic relationship we are developing with Pakistan, the fact that we have expanded our interactions far beyond the counter-terrorism agenda,” she said.
The United States, however, was also concerned about the recent attack and other efforts that “thankfully have not been successful, just as you heard President Karzai say that he was concerned”, she added.
“And we’ve been encouraged by the way that the Pakistani government and military has, in this past year, been much more willing to go after the terrorists who are not only threatening outsiders but threatening them: the military actions, you know, in Swat and Waziristan.”
But Secretary Clinton also stressed the need to do more, adding that she feared the consequences of another terrorist attack because she valued America’s relationship with Pakistan.