US SECRETARY of state Hillary Clinton attempted to explain the US’s difficult alliance with Pakistan to the House foreign affairs committee yesterday.
The committee has made $3 billion (€2.1 billion) in US military and development aid to Pakistan contingent on Islamabad co-operating with the US against extremist groups. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who chairs the committee, noted that US relations with Pakistan “continue to suffer from a cascading series of crises”.
She cited the case of Raymond Davis, the CIA contractor who was freed by a Pakistani court last March. “The ultimate disgrace was the discovery of Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan and living adjacent to a Pakistani military facility,” Ms Ros-Lehtinen added.
“Our two countries are at a crossroads. We cannot sustain a partnership with Islamabad if it pursues policies that are hostile to US interests and jeopardise American lives.”
On Wednesday, former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf described relations between the US and Pakistan as “terrible”.
Ms Clinton confirmed on October 21st that the US last summer held an exploratory meeting with the Haqqani network, an Afghan group that launches attacks on Americans in Afghanistan from Pakistan. The meeting was held at the urging of the Pakistanis, Ms Clinton said yesterday.
Ms Ros-Lehtinen asked Ms Clinton to clarify whether the US was cracking down on the Haqqani network or negotiating with it. “Both,” Ms Clinton said.
“We want to test whether these organisations have any willingness to negotiate in good faith.”
She added that “a major military operation in Afghanistan rounded up more than 100 Haqqani leaders in the past week”.
“Everyone agrees the Haqqani network has safe havens inside Pakistan that enable them to attack and kill Americans,” Ms Clinton said. “But we also agree that we cannot fight terrorism without Pakistan. We are balancing these two realities.”
A truck bombing at a US base in Afghanistan wounded 77 US soldiers on September 10th. Three days later, the US embassy in Kabul was besieged for 19 hours.
Adm Mike Mullen, the outgoing chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, told the Senate armed service committee that the Haqqani network carried out both attacks and “acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency”.
Ms Clinton was criticised for certifying last March that Pakistan was co-operating in the “fight against terrorism”.
Representative Ed Royce noted that Pakistan also harboured Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Pakistan’s co-operation in pursuing radical groups “has to be broadened to the LeT”, he said.
Washington’s relationship with Afghan president Hamid Karzai is not easy either. On October 22nd, just two days after Ms Clinton and Mr Karzai jointly accused Pakistan of providing sanctuary to Afghanistan’s enemies, Mr Karzai told Pakistani television: “God forbid, if there is ever a war between Pakistan and America, then we will side with Pakistan.”
Ms Clinton asked US ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker to “find out what he meant”. He reported that Mr Karzai’s comment “was taken out of context and misunderstood”.
Some two dozen Iranians wearing bright orange tops printed with the words “65 days and counting” sat in back of the committee room. There are 65 days until the last US soldiers are due to leave Iraq, and the Mujahedin-e Khalq (Mek), an Iranian group that was supported by Saddam Hussein to undermine the Tehran regime, fears several thousand members at Camp Ashraf, near Baquba, Iraq, will be massacred by the pro-Tehran government in Baghdad. Last April 8th, the Iraqi army raided Camp Ashraf, killing 36 of its residents.
The Mek’s opposition to Tehran has won it supporters in Congress. But it has long been designated a “terrorist” group by the US state department, which has promised to re-examine the designation.
“You are not doing as much as you can,” Representative Dana Rohrabacher accused Ms Clinton.
“It’s been 500 days since you were ordered to reconsider the terrorist designation.”
Ms Clinton said the US was trying to settle as many of the Mek members as possible in Europe before the end of the year.