ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The freeing of a hostage U.S.-Canadian family by
Pakistan’s army has been hailed by officials as a positive step in mending ties
between Washington and Islamabad, but those hoping for a fresh start in their
fraught relationship seem likely to be disappointed.
Pakistan and the United States have for years been - at best - uneasy
allies in the war against the Taliban and other Islamist extremists.
U.S. President Donald Trump said the raid that rescued American Caitlan
Coleman, her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle and their three young children
showed that Pakistan had started to “respect the United States again” in
response to his administration’s tough-talking tactics.
But the two countries still have conflicting interests - and the Trump
administration’s vow to apply more diplomatic pressure on Pakistan is unlikely
to work, given Islamabad’s growing alliance with regional heavyweight China,
say analysts.
“This is a small occurrence between Pakistan and the U.S., and it should
not be confused with the big issues that separate Pakistan and the U.S.,” said
Pakistani security analyst Imtiaz Gul.
On Friday, five years after they were kidnapped in Afghanistan, Coleman
and Boyle flew home with the three children born while they were captives of
the Haqqani network, a feared Taliban sub-group that Washington particularly
accuses Pakistan of failing to do enough to fight.
Some saw the timing as a goodwill gesture ahead of upcoming visits by
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this hostage release was announced
when you have a parade of top Trump administration officials in Islamabad to
deliver strongly worded warnings to Pakistan,” said Michael Kugelman, a South
Asia specialist at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
He added that no one should take the good news as a definite sign that
Pakistan would drastically change its behavior towards militants such at the
Haqqanis.
“Going after hostages is not the same thing as going after the terrorists
holding them,” he said.
The United States has repeatedly accused Pakistan of not doing enough to
eliminate militant havens on its territory.
COOPERATION, AND MISTRUST
For now, officials on both sides are talking up the cooperation on
display in Wednesday’s rescue operation, when Pakistani troops acting on a U.S.
intelligence tip-off swooped on a vehicle carrying the hostages.
But tensions remain.
Pakistan is still angry at the unilateral U.S. operations on its soil to
kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011 and last year’s drone strike that
killed Taliban supreme leader Akhtar Mansour.
United States officials, for their part, suspect both bin Laden and
Mansour were able to live in Pakistan with the tacit support of at least some
elements of the powerful military.
Washington also argues that the Taliban - which has been fighting to
re-establish its hardline Islamist regime in Kabul since a 2001 U.S.-backed
military intervention - would not have been able to gain so much ground against
Afghan government forces in recent years without safe havens in Pakistan.
Trump’s administration in August warned aid to Pakistan might be cut and
Washington might downgrade its status as a major non-NATO ally, in order to
pressure it to do more to help bring about an end to America’s longest-running
war.
Pakistani officials bristle at U.S. claims Islamabad is not doing enough
to tackle Islamist militants, particularly the Haqqanis, saying they have
cooperated for years and launched military operations to push out militants
from its soil.
Pakistan also says few appreciate that 17,000 Pakistanis have died
fighting militants or in bombings and other attacks since 2001.
REGIONAL RIVALS
Pakistan is less vulnerable to threats of U.S. aid cuts because Islamabad
has been deepening its relationship in recent years with China, which is
financing some $57 billion in infrastructure projects, said Gul.
Critics say the Pakistani military nurtures the Taliban and other
Islamist factions because they are seen as potentially useful to Pakistan’s
core confrontation with old rival India.
The Trump administration’s recent talk of a “regional strategy” for
Afghanistan that would include a bigger role for India has deeply upset
Pakistan’s establishment, said Mosharraf Zaidi, an Islamabad-based commentator
and former Pakistan Foreign Ministry adviser.
“It seems like for the U.S., and President Trump has said so, that India
is going to be a big part of the future of Afghanistan, and for Pakistan that’s
not on the table,” Zaidi said.
As a nuclear power, Pakistan could also be offended further at Trump’s
implication that it has bowed to his administration’s pressure.
“Given that people understand that respect for America is a big deal for
Trump and a big deal for the American people, it shouldn’t be so hard to
understand why Pakistan ... also wants to be respected,” said Zaidi.
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