Washington: The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has signalled
the United States remains open to exploring a peace deal including the
Haqqani network, the militant group that U.S. officials blame for a
campaign of high-profile violence that could jeopardize Washington’s
plans for withdrawing smoothly from Afghanistan.
"Where we are
right now is that we view the Haqqanis and other of their ilk as, you
know, being adversaries and being very dangerous to Americans, Afghans
and coalition members inside Afghanistan, but we are not shutting the
door on trying to determine whether there is some path forward," Clinton
said when asked whether she believed members of the Haqqani network
might reconcile with the Afghan government.
"It’s too soon to
tell whether any of these groups or any individuals within them are
serious," she said in an interview with Reuters. Inclusion of the
Haqqani network in a hoped-for peace deal -- now a chief objective in
the Obama administration’s Afghanistan policy after a decade of war --
is a controversial idea in Washington.
Officials blame the group
for last month’s attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul and a truck
bombing that injured scores of American soldiers.
The State
Department is facing heat from Capitol Hill for refraining, at least so
far, from officially designating the Haqqani group, which U.S. officials
say is based in western Pakistan, as a terrorist organisation.
The
White House has backed away from assertions from Admiral Mike Mullen,
who was the top U.S. military officer until he retired last month, that
Pakistani intelligence supported the Haqqani network in the September 13
embassy attack.
But President Barack Obama and others have put
their sometimes-ally Pakistan on notice that it must crack down on
militants or risk severing a key relationship.
According to
media reports, U.S. officials have held meetings with Haqqani network
representatives as part of their efforts -- which have not yet yielded
any visible results -- to strike a peace deal, but the State Department
declines to discuss details of the reconciliation process.
In
recent months reconciliation has become a more prominent feature of
Obama’s Afghan strategy even as U.S. and NATO soldiers continued to
battle the Taliban and Haqqani militants in Afghanistan’s volatile south
and east.
Earlier this year, Clinton advanced a peace deal as a
key plank of regional policy for the first time, saying Washington
would support a settlement between the Afghan government and those
militant groups that meet certain requirements, including renouncing
violence and supporting the Afghan constitution.
Despite the
conciliatory signals, Clinton said the United States would stick to its
military campaign that the White House hopes will make militants more
likely to enter serious negotiations.
"Now, it is also true that
we are still trying to kill and capture or neutralise them (the Haqqani
network)," Clinton said. "And they are still trying to, you know, kill
as many Americans, Afghans and coalition members as they can."
"In
many instances where there is an ongoing conflict, you are fighting and
looking to talk," Clinton said. "And then eventually maybe you are
fighting and talking. And then maybe you’ve got a cease-fire. And then
maybe you are just talking."
It is unclear how quickly a peace
deal could be had, as it remains unclear how military commanders can
achieve and defend security improvements as the foreign force in
Afghanistan gradually grows smaller.
While parts of the
Taliban’s southern heartland are safer than they were, Obama will be
withdrawing the extra troops he sent to Afghanistan in 2010 just as
commanders’ focus turns to the rugged eastern regions where the Haqqani
group are believed to operate.
Clinton did not directly address
the question of designating the Haqqani network as a ’foreign terrorist
organisation,’ but suggested the United States would want to keep its
options open as it seeks peace in a region known for historic
merry-go-round of political and military alliances.
"It’s always
difficult in this stage of a conflict, as you think through what is the
resolution you are seeking and how do you best obtain it, to really
know where you’ll be in two months, four months, six months," Clinton
said.
"We are going to support the Afghans and they want to
continue to see whether there is any way forward or whether you can see
some of the groups or their leaders willing to break with others." Online
