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Thursday, October 13, 2011
US open to ‘peace deal’ with Haqqanis: Clinton* Secretary of State says US will stick to its military campaign that White House hopes will make militants more likely to enter serious peace negotiations
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on Tuesday, signaled the United States remains open to exploring a peace deal, including the Haqqani network, the militant group that US officials blame for a campaign of high-profile violence that could jeopardise Washington’s plans for withdrawing smoothly from Afghanistan.
“Where we are right now is that we view the Haqqanis and other of their ilk as, you know, being adversaries and being very dangerous to Americans, Afghans and coalition members inside Afghanistan, but we are not shutting the door on trying to determine whether there is some path forward,” Clinton said when asked whether she believed members of the Haqqani network might reconcile with the Afghan government.
Inclusion of the Haqqani network in a hoped-for peace deal — now a chief objective in the Obama administration’s Afghanistan policy after a decade of war — is a controversial idea in Washington. Officials blame the group for last month’s attack on the US embassy in Kabul and a truck bombing that injured scores of American soldiers.
The State Department is facing heat from Capitol Hill for refraining, at least so far, from officially designating the Haqqani group, which US officials say is based in western Pakistan, as a terrorist organisation.
Afghanistan’s government will continue to try to draw the Taliban insurgency to peace talks, Clinton said despite the weekend statement from a frustrated Afghan President Hamid Karzai that the effort is futile.
According to media reports, US officials have held meetings with Haqqani network representatives as part of their efforts — which have not yet yielded any visible results – to strike a peace deal, but the State Department declines to discuss details of the reconciliation process.
Earlier this year, Clinton advanced a peace deal as a key plank of regional policy for the first time, saying Washington would support a settlement between the Afghan government and those militant groups that meet certain requirements, including renouncing violence and supporting the Afghan constitution.
Despite the conciliatory signals, Clinton said the United States would stick to its military campaign that the White House hopes will make militants more likely to enter serious negotiations. agencies
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk