U.S. Wants Pakistan to Do More to Combat Terrorism

Rice to Press Pakistan on Antiterror Vigilance

Saeed Shah, Wall Street Journal, August 29, 2015

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—U.S. national security adviser Susan Rice is set to arrive in Pakistan on Sunday to press the country’s government to do more to prevent terrorists from using its territory as a base for attacks on its neighboring states, an American official said.

Washington has warned Pakistan that its stands to lose $300 million in military aid if it doesn’t step up efforts to combat the Haqqani network, an Afghan insurgent group that U.S. officials says is based in Pakistan and has close ties to Islamabad’s military intelligence agency.

The Haqqani network is blamed by U.S. and Afghan intelligence for a series of bombings in Kabul earlier in August.

Ms. Rice is due to meet with Pakistan’s top civilian and military leadership for discussion that will include “terrorist and militant attacks emanating from Pakistani soil,” the U.S. official said.

The visit also comes amid rising tension between India and Pakistan, in the wake of a canceled meeting between the two countries’ national security advisers. Each side blamed the other for derailing the talks, which had been set for last Monday.

Nine civilians were killed Friday by cross-border firing between the estranged neighbors, authorities on the two sides said. The U.S. official, however, said that the trip, planned for weeks, wasn’t in response to the India-Pakistan strains.

Pakistan denies that Afghan insurgent leaders are based in the country. Islamabad also complains bitterly that the U.S. wants Pakistan both to fight the Taliban and bring them to the negotiating table. Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the military didn’t respond to requests for comment on Saturday.

In tentative peace talks held in early July outside Islamabad, a senior U.S. diplomat was present during a meeting between representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban, including at least one member of the Haqqani network, according to U.S. and Pakistani officials. The Haqqani network is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S., unlike the Taliban.

Following the belated revelation late last month that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had died two years ago, the leadership of the group met in the western Pakistani city of Quetta, according to the Taliban. The head of the Haqqani network, Sirajuddin Haqqani, was made the new deputy leader of the Taliban at the meeting, further blurring the lines between the two groups.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is due to meet President Barack Obama at the White House in October. U.S. officials say that no decision has been made yet on whether to punish Pakistan financially over the Haqqani network, saying that Islamabad still has time to act against the group.