Soldiers patrol near the site of clashes between militants and security forces in Upper Dir, along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. (Reuters Photo/File)
ISLAMABAD/KABUL, June 27 (Reuters): Fighting across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border will overshadow talks when the two countries meet along with the United States on Tuesday to map out plans for talks with the Taliban.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai accused Pakistan on Sunday of firing 470 rockets into eastern Afghanistan over the past three weeks in an escalation of fighting across the porous border.
Pakistan denied the allegations. It blames Afghanistan for giving safe haven to militants on its side of the border, particularly in eastern Kunar province, leaving it vulnerable to counter-attack when it chases them out of its own ethnic Pashtun tribal areas. "I think the main thing on the agenda this time may be the situation on the border," said Waheed Mujhda, political analyst at the Afghan Analytical and Advisory Center in Kabul.
The talks, between U.S. envoy Marc Grossman and top diplomats from Afghanistan and Pakistan, will be the first since President Barack Obama announced a faster-than-expected troop withdrawal last week, accompanied by talks with the Taliban.
Pakistan, badly bruised after U.S. forces found and killed Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad on May 2, is keen to show it has a constructive role to play in helping the United States to bring stability to Afghanistan. It has long wanted the United States to hold talks with the Taliban to seek a political settlement to the Afghan conflict which it says is fuelling its own domestic Islamist insurgency.
The United States has come some way toward sharing that view, opening its own preliminary talks with the Taliban. It has also softened its stance on talks by saying its demands that insurgents renounce violence, sever ties with al Qaeda and respect the Afghan constitution are outcomes rather than preconditions for negotiations - a suggestion made last year by Pakistan.
"Strategically the two countries are on same page," the senior military official said. "There are issues on operational and tactical levels." Karzai has also been pushing for reconciliation with the Taliban and for the first time in the 10-year war, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States all share - in theory at least -- a commitment to seek a political settlement.
DISTRUST ON ALL SIDES
But deep distrust remains, both between the United States and Pakistan and between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pakistan has so far been excluded from Washington's early contacts with the Taliban, Grossman told a news conference in Kabul. "Up to now, the government of Pakistan has not been involved in that particular process at all, as yet."
Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of continuing to support the Afghan Taliban, whom it openly backed when they were in power from 1996 to 2001, to maintain its influence in Afghanistan. Kabul also says Islamabad is trying to manipulate peace talks to its advantage, to the point of sabotaging them if they do not go in the direction it wants. "We expect practical steps from Pakistan in the weeks and months ahead to help sustain the peace process," a senior Afghan government official said. "The ball is in Pakistan's court."
Mujhda, the political analyst, echoed widespread distrust in Kabul of Pakistan's intentions. "In each of these meetings the reconciliation issue is raised, promises are made and then the countries go home and nothing is done," he said. "Pakistan has so far opposed attempts by the U.S. to talk to the Taliban."
The United States is also reluctant to include all insurgents in a political settlement, limiting its talks to the Afghan Taliban led by Mullah Mohammed Omar, but excluding the Haqqani network - the most active group in eastern Afghanistan. It is pushing Pakistan to expand its military operations in its tribal areas to target militants who use them as a base to fight in Afghanistan - an issue expected to come up on Tuesday. The meeting, Grossman said, was "a way to coordinate efforts on reconciliation but also a way for Afghanistan and the U.S. to state clearly to the government of Pakistan ... to end the support by Pakistan of safe havens."
Pakistan says its overstretched military will give priority to fighting militants killing its own people. With the Taliban talks still at a preliminary stage, and vulnerable to ethnic and regional rivalries which could plunge Afghanistan deeper into civil war as U.S. troops withdraw, the cross-border shelling has added another complication to a fragile situation.
The Afghan government said on Sunday that "it strongly condemned the firing of 470 rockets over the past three weeks from the Pakistan side of the border in the eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangahar provinces." President Karzai expressed his deep concern, it said, and asked Pakistan to immediately stop firing into Afghanistan.
Pakistan army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas denied the allegations on Monday. "This is not true. No rounds have been fired into Afghanistan," he said.
In the last month, there had been five major attacks from the Afghan side of the border, in which 55 men in the Pakistani security forces had been killed and 80 wounded. "The fleeing militants were engaged by the security forces and a few accidental rounds going across cannot be ruled out," he said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai accused Pakistan on Sunday of firing 470 rockets into eastern Afghanistan over the past three weeks in an escalation of fighting across the porous border.
Pakistan denied the allegations. It blames Afghanistan for giving safe haven to militants on its side of the border, particularly in eastern Kunar province, leaving it vulnerable to counter-attack when it chases them out of its own ethnic Pashtun tribal areas. "I think the main thing on the agenda this time may be the situation on the border," said Waheed Mujhda, political analyst at the Afghan Analytical and Advisory Center in Kabul.
The talks, between U.S. envoy Marc Grossman and top diplomats from Afghanistan and Pakistan, will be the first since President Barack Obama announced a faster-than-expected troop withdrawal last week, accompanied by talks with the Taliban.
Pakistan, badly bruised after U.S. forces found and killed Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad on May 2, is keen to show it has a constructive role to play in helping the United States to bring stability to Afghanistan. It has long wanted the United States to hold talks with the Taliban to seek a political settlement to the Afghan conflict which it says is fuelling its own domestic Islamist insurgency.
The United States has come some way toward sharing that view, opening its own preliminary talks with the Taliban. It has also softened its stance on talks by saying its demands that insurgents renounce violence, sever ties with al Qaeda and respect the Afghan constitution are outcomes rather than preconditions for negotiations - a suggestion made last year by Pakistan.
"Strategically the two countries are on same page," the senior military official said. "There are issues on operational and tactical levels." Karzai has also been pushing for reconciliation with the Taliban and for the first time in the 10-year war, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States all share - in theory at least -- a commitment to seek a political settlement.
DISTRUST ON ALL SIDES
But deep distrust remains, both between the United States and Pakistan and between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pakistan has so far been excluded from Washington's early contacts with the Taliban, Grossman told a news conference in Kabul. "Up to now, the government of Pakistan has not been involved in that particular process at all, as yet."
Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of continuing to support the Afghan Taliban, whom it openly backed when they were in power from 1996 to 2001, to maintain its influence in Afghanistan. Kabul also says Islamabad is trying to manipulate peace talks to its advantage, to the point of sabotaging them if they do not go in the direction it wants. "We expect practical steps from Pakistan in the weeks and months ahead to help sustain the peace process," a senior Afghan government official said. "The ball is in Pakistan's court."
Mujhda, the political analyst, echoed widespread distrust in Kabul of Pakistan's intentions. "In each of these meetings the reconciliation issue is raised, promises are made and then the countries go home and nothing is done," he said. "Pakistan has so far opposed attempts by the U.S. to talk to the Taliban."
The United States is also reluctant to include all insurgents in a political settlement, limiting its talks to the Afghan Taliban led by Mullah Mohammed Omar, but excluding the Haqqani network - the most active group in eastern Afghanistan. It is pushing Pakistan to expand its military operations in its tribal areas to target militants who use them as a base to fight in Afghanistan - an issue expected to come up on Tuesday. The meeting, Grossman said, was "a way to coordinate efforts on reconciliation but also a way for Afghanistan and the U.S. to state clearly to the government of Pakistan ... to end the support by Pakistan of safe havens."
Pakistan says its overstretched military will give priority to fighting militants killing its own people. With the Taliban talks still at a preliminary stage, and vulnerable to ethnic and regional rivalries which could plunge Afghanistan deeper into civil war as U.S. troops withdraw, the cross-border shelling has added another complication to a fragile situation.
The Afghan government said on Sunday that "it strongly condemned the firing of 470 rockets over the past three weeks from the Pakistan side of the border in the eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangahar provinces." President Karzai expressed his deep concern, it said, and asked Pakistan to immediately stop firing into Afghanistan.
Pakistan army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas denied the allegations on Monday. "This is not true. No rounds have been fired into Afghanistan," he said.
In the last month, there had been five major attacks from the Afghan side of the border, in which 55 men in the Pakistani security forces had been killed and 80 wounded. "The fleeing militants were engaged by the security forces and a few accidental rounds going across cannot be ruled out," he said.
