Islamabad closer to Washington on Afghan issue, says US expert

Pakistan’s stance vindicated on Afghan issue

Islamabad is much closer to Washington on Afghan issue than New Delhi and peace in Afghanistan, which opens the door for Pakistan for a new relationship with the US beyond security ties, said prominent foreign policy expert Prof Vali Nasr from the United States.

He was briefing the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee meeting at the Parliament House on Pakistan-US relations, President’s Trump visit to India and US views about China, Iran and Afghanistan.

Prof Nasr said that Modi’s domestic agenda is to erase Nehru’s legacy and reshape India. He praised President Trump for wiping out the notion of war on terror, as his perspective was all about economy and he was opposed to any new wars in the Muslim world.

Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said Pakistan’s long standing position that the US should talk to the Taliban has now been finally vindicated with the upcoming peace deal.

“Pakistan has now more ‘strategic space’ to pursue its core foreign policy interests,” he said. Senator Mushahid Hussain said that with Modi forced to look inwards because of his follies in Kashmir and India, Trump dependent on Pakistan for the Afghan peace process, which he sees pivotal to his election victory in 2020 and the situation in the Gulf between Iran and its neighbours give Pakistan a geo-political breather to protect, promote, pursue its foreign policy interests in the region, especially CPEC, Kashmir issue, relations with Iran and Afghanistan.

Senator Sherry Rehman urged the need for a sustained and substantive economic engagement with the US beyond just the security dimension because she feared that the “moment” for Pakistan being a facilitator on Afghanistan might soon be forgotten.

Senator Sirajul Haq raised the issue of the ecology and environment of Afghanistan and Pakistan being damaged by decades of conflict with the result that this can also affect future generations like it happened in the case of Vietnam and Cambodia and he urged that Pakistan seek reparations from the US for the damage caused by the American wars in the region.

Senator Anwarul Haq Kakar expressed the hope for a rapprochement between Iran and its Arab neighbours.

The meeting was attended by Senators Javed Abbasi, Nuzhat Sadiq, Seemee Ezdi, Sherry Rehman, Anwarul Haq Kakar, Sirajul Haq, Sitara Ayaz and Dr. Shahzad Waseem as well as the Secretary of the Committee Rabeea Anwar.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th, 2020.