Pakistan extend hands to Afghan Taliban...while throwing in the towel at home.

[Solid Beast]

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. ally Pakistan is reaching out to "all levels" of the Afghan Taliban in a bid to encourage reconciliation in its war-torn neighbor, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

President Barack Obama has said a political solution was needed to stabilize Afghanistan and has emphasized that success would not be possible without the support of Pakistan.

"We are trying to reach out to them at all levels and all of us would like that our efforts should bring some results but at this point in time it is very difficult to say," ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said of Pakistan's efforts.

The Afghan government is preparing a reintegration plan with the Taliban that targets lower to mid-level Taliban fighters but has not focused on more senior leaders of the insurgency.

International donors are meeting in London on January 28, when Afghan President Hamid Karzai is expected to seek their support for his reintegration plan.

Analysts say Pakistan is well placed to mediate in Afghanistan, where it nurtured the Taliban in the 1990s.

Basit said it was important that there be reconciliation at all levels and that Pakistan was helping in this regard. He declined to give any details.

"Whether or not our efforts will yield results, we will see," he told Reuters in an interview.

"We don't want to discuss the specifics. There are efforts being made and we are trying to win over those Taliban or forces who are 'reconcilables'. Let's see," he added.

Asked specifically whether Pakistan was targeting top-level leaders, he said: "We are trying at all levels but where we succeed is another matter."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Pakistan this week and urged it to root out Afghan Taliban based in its northwestern border enclaves, from where they have been orchestrating an intensified insurgency in Afghanistan.

UNDER PRESSURE

Pakistan has repeatedly told Washington that it was already fighting a homegrown Taliban and does not have the resources to open up new fronts against Afghan militant groups based in its northwest. Such groups include the Haqqani network, which the U.S. military says is the biggest threat in Afghanistan.

The United States has intensified unmanned drone attacks on militants in northwest Pakistan after a deadly attack on U.S. intelligence agents across the border in Afghanistan's Khost province on December 30.

Pakistan complains the attacks are an affront to its sovereignty and have asked the United States for drone technology as well as armed drones to do the job itself.

"We do need drones -- unmanned vehicles -- which are capable also of firing missiles," he said.

"Pakistan is capable of handling these drone attacks militarily but we would not like to unnecessarily ratchet up problems with the U.S.," he said.

During his visit, Gates offered a dozen unarmed surveillance drones. Basit said his government was considering the offer but reiterated that Pakistan wanted armed drones.

Gates also urged the Pakistanis to expand military operations to North Waziristan but was told it could take six months to a year before this happened, said Basit.

"If we expand our operations then that will require us to pull out from the eastern border which under the circumstances is not possible," he said, referring to the border with rival India.

"That is a serious issue for us and we hope that at the end of the day our friends, the Americans, will be cognizant of our security perceptions," he said.

Basit complained the United States was behind on delivering funds promised to pay for anti-militant efforts. The United States says Pakistan has denied visas for auditors and other U.S. officials needed to ensure the money is spent properly.

Gates annoyed Pakistan when he said on Wednesday in New Delhi that India may lose its patience with Pakistan after any repeat of a Mumbai-style attacks and militants in the region may use this to provoke the two rivals to war.

"Such a statement was very unhelpful and undiplomatic ... These can be exploited by India," said Basit.

New Delhi is increasingly frustrated at what it sees as Islamabad's failure to bring to justice the masterminds of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.

It blames militants belonging to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group for the attacks that killed 166 people.

[Singh]

Analysis: To Gates, Taliban a 'cancer' but part of Afghan 'political fabric'

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN -- On his first trip here in three years, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates had a hard time making up his mind about the Taliban.

During a series of speeches and interviews, Gates lumped all Taliban factions into the same category, calling them a "scourge" and a "cancer" that colludes with al-Qaeda and other extremist groups along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. He urged Pakistani leaders to show no mercy to Taliban militias operating in their territory, even ones the country has long regarded as helpful to its interests.

"You can't say one's good and one's not good," he told Pakistan's Express TV. "They're all insidious, and safe havens for all of them need to be eliminated."

But Gates repeatedly said the Taliban is around to stay. He said cutting a deal with some Taliban commanders is the only way to bring a stable government and lasting peace to Afghanistan.

"Political reconciliation ultimately has to be a part of settling the conflict," he told journalists Friday at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad. "The Taliban," he added, "we recognize are part of the political fabric of Afghanistan at this point."

Gates's remarks on the Taliban were met with skepticism during his two-day visit.

Pakistan's chief military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, told reporters traveling with Gates that it was wrong for the Pentagon chief to lump all groups affiliated with the Taliban under the same banner. Some are fighting for different causes, he said, and pose different threats. "The answer can't be in black and white."

Despite U.S. prodding, Abbas also said the Pakistani army had no imminent plans to crack down on Taliban leaders hiding in the border city of Quetta or the tribal area of North Waziristan. He said that the army is embroiled in other counterinsurgency operations and that Pakistani public opinion does not support an expansion of the fight.

Imtiaz Gul, chairman of the Center for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad, said Gates's comments about the Taliban were unlikely to persuade many Pakistani listeners.

"Herein lies this contradiction and duplicity on the part of U.S. policy," he said. "Are they a cancer or part of the political fabric? You can't apply this principle selectively."

He said that after years of cultivating Islamist groups, Pakistan's military leadership had soured on many of them. But he said Pakistan draws a clear distinction between Taliban fighters who cross the border to fight U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan and those fueling a rebellion at home.

"We shouldn't simplify things the way Mr. Gates tries to put it. Yes, there are connections between these different groups, but they have different motivations," Gul said. "There is a minimum common denominator that binds them together, and that's anti-Americanism."

Gates said the purpose of his trip was to reassure Pakistan's civilian and military leaders about the United States' long-term commitment to the region after a decade of neglect in the 1990s.

In a speech to Pakistani military officers, he said the United States had "largely abandoned Afghanistan" after the Soviet Union ended its occupation in 1989. He also said severing defense ties with Pakistan in the early 1990s, prompted by Islamabad's nuclear testing program, "was a grave strategic mistake."

Gates also said some of the Taliban warlords the United States is pressing Pakistan to crack down on are the same ones whom the CIA and Pakistani intelligence backed against the Soviets in the 1980s, when Gates was deputy director of the agency.

"Frankly, we all had links with various groups that are now a problem for us today," he said in the Pakistani TV interview. "And some have maintained those links longer than others."

washingtonpost.com

[Singh]

Pakistan snubs US over new Taliban offensive

Pakistan's army has said it will launch no new offensives on militants in 2010, as the US defence secretary arrived for talks on combating Taliban fighters.

Army spokesman Athar Abbas told the BBC the "overstretched" military had no plans for any fresh anti-militant operations over the next 12 months.

Our correspondent says the comments are a clear snub to Washington.

The US would like Pakistan to expand an offensive against militants launching cross-border attacks in Afghanistan.

Defence Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Pakistan on Thursday for his first visit since US President Barack Obama took office last year.

'Embarrassing'

The one-day trip comes at a crucial time in the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, with the US planning to commit 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.


Mr Gates was expected to tell Pakistan that it could do more against top Taliban leaders operating in its territory, some of whom are alleged to have close links to Pakistan's ISI intelligence service.

The Pakistani army launched major ground offensives in 2009 in the north-west against Pakistani Taliban strongholds in the Swat region, last April, and in South Waziristan, last October.

The militants have hit back with a wave of suicide bombings and attacks that have killed hundreds of people across Pakistan.

In the capital, Islamabad, on Thursday, Maj Gen Abbas, head of public relations for the Pakistan army, told the BBC: "We are not going to conduct any major new operations against the militants over the next 12 months.

"The Pakistan army is overstretched and it is not in a position to open any new fronts. Obviously, we will continue our present operations in Waziristan and Swat."

'Trust deficit'

The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad says the comments are a clear brush-off to top US officials.

Our correspondent adds they are embarrassing for Pakistan's shaky coalition government, and likely to further destabilise already-low ties with its US ally.

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He says it also threatens to render ineffective an expanded coalition troop deployment in Afghanistan, as the Taliban over the border would be relieved of any pressure from the Pakistan army.

Before arriving in Islamabad, Mr Gates told reporters travelling with him from India: "You can't ignore one part of this cancer and pretend that it won't have some impact closer to home."

His visit comes amidst a slight cooling in relations between the two allies. In an article published in a Pakistani newspaper on Thursday, Mr Gates referred to a "trust deficit".

As well as talking with his counterpart, Ahmed Mukhtar, the US defence secretary is expected to meet Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and President Asif Zardari.

Talks were also expected to focus on US drone strikes against militants near the Afghan border.

Hundreds of people - many of them militants, but many more civilians - have died in the attacks, which have stoked deep resentment of the US among many Pakistanis.

But our correspondent says Mr Gates will argue that drone strikes are the only effective measure against the Taliban.

Pakistan has been an important US partner in South Asia since the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US.

BBC News - Pakistan snubs US over new Taliban offensive