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‘Tillerson’s South Asia visit fails to make breakthrough in Afghan issue’
ISLAMABAD: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s recent visit to South Asian countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, has failed to make a breakthrough in efforts for peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan as the United States continued its hegemonistic approach to impose its policies to solve the sensitive issue, Pakistani analysts said. Tillerson’s tour […]
ISLAMABAD: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s recent visit to South Asian countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, has failed to make a breakthrough in efforts for peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan as the United States continued its hegemonistic approach to impose its policies to solve the sensitive issue, Pakistani analysts said.
Tillerson’s tour had been expected and touted as very crucial to start a process for regional peace as well as Afghanistan’s security situation, but his short stopovers in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, and threatening statements against the latter, the oldest and important stakeholder in the issue, disappointed the optimists.
Before stopping in Pakistan for few hours, the US secretary of state’s media talks against Pakistan at the Bagram military base in Afghanistan triggered an anger and disappointment in Pakistani circles, which finally led to a failure in talks between the two sides over bilateral relations, cooperation in the war on terror, and Afghan peace process.
Shireen Mazari, director general of Strategic Studies Institute Islamabad, said that Tillerson’s visit was proven purposeless as it could not bring any positive outcome regarding its agenda about Afghan issue and campaign against terrorism. Talking to Xinhua, Mazari said separate statements issued from the two sides at the end of the visit expressed two different stances on the security issue, adding that the outcome of the tour also confirmed that both sides are not on one page and also did not move from their old positions of blaming each other.
Tillerson had a few hours stopover in Pakistan on his way to India on Tuesday afternoon, during which he led a delegation in talks with Pakistan’s top civil and military leaders on multiple issues, focusing on cooperation for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan.
Peace lovers and local watchers in Pakistan were hyping the Tillerson’s visit as a great opportunity to restart bilateral cooperation for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan, but Tillerson’s statements before and after his Pakistan visit has disappointed optimists and even confused the situation further.
Tillerson’s statement in Afghanistan that the United States will work with Pakistan under the condition whether it takes action against the terrorist groups or not was seriously criticised in Pakistan, and country’s Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani rejected it and said he (Tillerson) is behaving like a viceroy, a higher designation of British rule in the Indian subcontinent. Moreover, during a joint press conference along with his Indian counterpart in New Delhi, Tillerson once again blamed Pakistan for its “inaction” against terrorist organisations and reiterated Donald Trump’s call for the “country to do more to address a growing problem of terrorism within its borders, which can lead to a threat to Pakistan’s own stability”.
Rebuffing Tillerson’s statement in India, Professor Saeed Chaudhry, Director of Islamabad Council for International Affairs, suggested to the United States not to worry about Pakistan’s stability but its failure in the 16-year long war in Afghanistan.
Chaudhry believed that Tillerson’s statements against Pakistan, who is a very important stakeholder in Afghan issue, can only amuse a third party India, which is one of the United States’ biggest arms buyers, but cannot be helpful to solve the issue.
“The biggest problem with the United States is that it is not ready to listen to any wise and reality-based suggestions which don’t fit its hegemonistic policies,” said Chaudhry.
Published in Daily Times, October 29th 2017.
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