The United States appeared on Thursday to have adopted a new approach for dealing with the alleged presence of terrorist outfits in Fata, taking legal action against militants without further escalating tensions with Pakistan.
As the US Treasury Department blacklisted seven people from the Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-Taiba as terrorists, the State Department continued to stress Washington’s close ties with Islamabad.
“The US and Pakistan have a very clear and direct relationship … I don’t think that the US and Pakistan need a third country to mediate between them. We are working directly,” said the department’s spokesperson Victoria Nuland when asked if the Obama administration had contacted other countries for deescalating tensions with Islamabad. Also on Thursday, one of the original authors of the aid to Pakistan bill, Senator Richard Lugar said the US effort to aid Pakistan had not had enough time to achieve its goal: dispel Pakistani mistrust of the United States. Senator Lugar told the US media that one reason the Kerry-Lugar-Berman programme had not yet had a chance to work was that very little money had actually been spent.
That’s due in part to disagreements between the US and the Pakistani government about how programmes would be administered, he said. The US Congress is re-evaluating a $7.5 billion aid package for Pakistan following allegations that Islamabad has links to anti-US militant groups. The five-year aid package, known as Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill, was passed in 2009 but in the last three years, Pakistan has only received less than $500 million.
Last week, US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen told a Senate panel that Pakistan was helping the militants and that the Haqqani network was “a veritable arm” of the ISI. However, the White House and the State Department have refused to endorse the admiral’s claim while US media reports, attributed to official sources, said that Mr Mullen’s assertion was based on faulty intelligence. Since then the Obama administration also has launched a diplomatic offensive to reduce tensions and on Thursday Pakistan’s Ambassador Husain Haqqani was invited to the State Department for consultations.
The legal sanctions announced on Thursday target a powerful commander of the Haqqani network, Abdul Aziz Abbasin. An Afghan native, Abbasin is the network’s “shadow governor” in Orgun district of Afghanistan. Four other figures with links to Taliban and Al Qaeda activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan were named in the sanctions, which aim at putting pressure on financial links to the groups. Treasury listed Afghanistan natives Haji Faizullah Khan Noorzai and Haji Malik Noorzai as Taliban financiers who helped the militant group invest money in various businesses. It also named Pakistan national Abdur Rehman, who operates a religious school in Karachi, as aiding the Taliban and Al Qaeda logistically and financially. The fifth person named was Fazal Rahim, called a financial facilitator for Al Qaeda and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Rahim had helped the IMU send foreign fighters to Pakistan for training. “These financiers and facilitators provide the fuel for the Taliban, Haqqani network and Al Qaeda to realise their violent aspirations,” Treasury under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence David Cohen said in a statement.
On Wednesday, the US had blacklisted two Lashkar-e-Taiba officials for their alleged link to terrorism. The official US statement identified Zafar Iqbal or Hafiz Abdul Salam Bhuttavi as the Lashkar’s co-founders. In Congress, where sentiments against Pakistan are high, Senator Lugar broke away from other lawmakers in calling for continuing US assistance to Islamabad. Senator Lugar told the US media he believed that American development aid could help change perceptions about the United States in Pakistan. “It could and would have, but it won’t unless the money is spent,” he said. “I think it’s a good approach, but the question is what our overall relationship will be” with Pakistan, he added.
Congressman Howard Berman, another co-author of the aid to Pakistan bill, however, was reluctant to endorse him. He told the media that he believed Americans were “right to be frustrated with Pakistan” but he also warned against a blanket cut-off.
This “may make us feel good in the short term, but will only harm our long-term interests in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the rest of South Asia,” he said.
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