With Pakistan a continuing sanctuary for insurgent fighters in Afghanistan since 9/11, the United States should adopt a harder stance against Afghanistan’s rogue neighbor, according to a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
“A continuing failure to curb the Taliban and Haqqani Network’s sanctuary in Pakistan will undermine Washington’s ability to achieve even limited goals in Afghanistan—including a peace settlement,” wrote Seth G. Jones in The Insurgent Sanctuary in Pakistan. “If the United States is serious about reaching a negotiated settlement with the Taliban—or even the unlikely goal of defeating the Taliban on the battlefield—it needs to quickly change its strategy and put pressure on the Taliban leadership in Pakistan.”
Longtime Safe Haven
Smith reminds readers early on that Pakistan has long served as an insurgent safe haven, all the way back to late 2001 when Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar escaped into Pakistan after 9/11. Omar reportedly died in a Karachi hospital in 2013, but his death wasn’t reported until two years later.
The most notorious insurgent from Afghanistan who found refuge in Pakistan was Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, who maintained a compound in Abbottabad, about 160 miles from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Navy SEALs stormed the compound May 2, 2011, and killed Bin Laden.
In the report, Smith notes a number of advantages such a safe haven provides and how such cross-border cooperation are “essential” to the insurgents’ cause.
“A group can plot, recruit, proselytize, contact supporters around the world, raise money, resupply, and—perhaps most important—enjoy a respite from the government’s counterinsurgent efforts in a sanctuary,” Smith wrote. “Ideally, a sanctuary should be on foreign territory outside the reach of government forces, yet close enough—such as in a neighboring country—so that it is relatively easy to transit.”
The report noted President Donald Trump’s hardline stance toward Pakistan, announcing his wish to end aid in early 2018. Just before a September visit to Pakistan by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the United States said it would cancel a $300 million military aid package.
Still, the report notes that the Trump administration is having no more luck with Pakistan than his predecessors.
“If the United States is serious about reaching a negotiated settlement with the Taliban—or even the unlikely goal of defeating the Taliban on the battlefield—it needs to quickly change its strategy and put pressure on the Taliban leadership in Pakistan,” the report states.
The report outlines a number of recommendations if Pakistan continues to harbor insurgents. Among the recommendations are for more transparency from Pakistan—public disclosures of insurgent leaders camped in Pakistan—as well as targeting insurgents in the country. More aggressive political recommendations include “suspending or terminating Pakistan’s status as a non-NATO ally” or declaring them “state sponsors of terrorism” on the State Department terror list.
Read the entire report here.
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