Why Haqqanis keep evading US terror list?
Amir Mir, The NewsSaturday, October 15, 2011
Amir Mir, The NewsSaturday, October 15, 2011
=================================================
XINJIANG: A signal from the US that it remains open to inclusion of the Haqqani network in a peace deal for Afghanistan has made it clear why the Obama administration is reluctant to declare the group a “foreign terrorist organisation” despite blaming the Haqqanis for the audacious September 13 attack on the US embassy in Kabul.
Washington knows very well that the Haqqani network is a key player in Afghan politics and will play a role in determining the kind of Afghanistan the Americans will leave behind more than a decade after the invasion. Even so, US drone attacks targeting key members of the group continue, with reports that a senior commander of the network was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan on Thursday.
“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,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Reuters on October 11 when asked if she believed members of the Haqqani network might reconcile with the Afghan government. Clinton is extending the informal offer of peace talks at a crucial time when the US State Department is under pressure refraining from officially designating the Haqqani group as a terrorist organisation.
The Obama administration’s changing stance shows that the Americans don’t want to close the door on negotiations since a terrorist tag would make it impossible to hold talks with Haqqanis, as that would violate American criminal law.
Admiral Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declared last month the lethal network was “a veritable arm of the ISI which exports violent extremism to Afghanistan”. However, the White House has already backed away from the assertions of Mullen, who was the top US military officer until his retirement last month.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, the elusive chief of the Haqqani network and a key component of the Taliban-led insurgency, claimed in an October 3, 2011, interview with BBC that he had been approached by the US to join the Afghan government. “Right from the first day of (the) American arrival till this day, not only Pakistani but other Islamic and other non-Islamic countries including America, contacted us and they are still doing so. They are asking us to leave the ranks of Islamic emirates,” he said, referring to the Taliban leadership. He said the outsiders promised an “important role in the government of Afghanistan” as well as negotiations.
Confirming Sirajuddin’s claim, the Wall Street Journal reported on October 5 that senior US officials secretly met with leaders of the Haqqani network this summer in an effort to draw them into talks on winding down the war. The report quoted some senior US officials as saying there had been at least one meeting over the summer between Haqqani representatives and US officials, which was set up by the ISI. The US military leadership has repeatedly blamed the Haqqani network for most of the terrorist attacks on international forces stationed in Afghanistan, with the US Treasury Department imposing sanctions on Sirajuddin Haqqani and several other group leaders on September 29 in the wake of the September 13 attack in Kabul.
Yet the move has failed to dissipate mounting pressure on the White House to place the Haqqani group on the State Department’s list of designated terrorist organisations. Responding to growing demands from American lawmakers to tag the Haqqani network as a terrorist group, Clinton on September 28 said the United States was close to a decision on whether it makes such a declaration. “We are in the final, formal review that has to be undertaken to make a government-wide decision to designate the network as a foreign terrorist organisation,” Clinton told reporters in Washington.
However, in making the Oct 11 statement suggesting the US wants to keep its options open for a deal with militant groups as it seeks peace in a region known for historic merry-go-round of political and military alliances, Hillary Clinton has indicated that the Haqqanis will stay off the terrorist list in near future, mainly because Washington considers it as being in the strongest position among militant groups to unravel the US plan of stabilising Afghanistan before the scheduled withdrawal next year.
In fact, the Taliban of Afghanistan had been designated as a “Foreign Terrorist Organisation” under the US Treasury Department’s Executive Order No 13224, issued on September 23, 2001. But the current status of the Haqqani network as an insurgent group allows the White House to hold talks without breaking American criminal law - unless, like the Afghan Taliban, it is declared a terrorist outfit.
XINJIANG: A signal from the US that it remains open to inclusion of the Haqqani network in a peace deal for Afghanistan has made it clear why the Obama administration is reluctant to declare the group a “foreign terrorist organisation” despite blaming the Haqqanis for the audacious September 13 attack on the US embassy in Kabul.
Washington knows very well that the Haqqani network is a key player in Afghan politics and will play a role in determining the kind of Afghanistan the Americans will leave behind more than a decade after the invasion. Even so, US drone attacks targeting key members of the group continue, with reports that a senior commander of the network was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan on Thursday.
“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,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Reuters on October 11 when asked if she believed members of the Haqqani network might reconcile with the Afghan government. Clinton is extending the informal offer of peace talks at a crucial time when the US State Department is under pressure refraining from officially designating the Haqqani group as a terrorist organisation.
The Obama administration’s changing stance shows that the Americans don’t want to close the door on negotiations since a terrorist tag would make it impossible to hold talks with Haqqanis, as that would violate American criminal law.
Admiral Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declared last month the lethal network was “a veritable arm of the ISI which exports violent extremism to Afghanistan”. However, the White House has already backed away from the assertions of Mullen, who was the top US military officer until his retirement last month.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, the elusive chief of the Haqqani network and a key component of the Taliban-led insurgency, claimed in an October 3, 2011, interview with BBC that he had been approached by the US to join the Afghan government. “Right from the first day of (the) American arrival till this day, not only Pakistani but other Islamic and other non-Islamic countries including America, contacted us and they are still doing so. They are asking us to leave the ranks of Islamic emirates,” he said, referring to the Taliban leadership. He said the outsiders promised an “important role in the government of Afghanistan” as well as negotiations.
Confirming Sirajuddin’s claim, the Wall Street Journal reported on October 5 that senior US officials secretly met with leaders of the Haqqani network this summer in an effort to draw them into talks on winding down the war. The report quoted some senior US officials as saying there had been at least one meeting over the summer between Haqqani representatives and US officials, which was set up by the ISI. The US military leadership has repeatedly blamed the Haqqani network for most of the terrorist attacks on international forces stationed in Afghanistan, with the US Treasury Department imposing sanctions on Sirajuddin Haqqani and several other group leaders on September 29 in the wake of the September 13 attack in Kabul.
Yet the move has failed to dissipate mounting pressure on the White House to place the Haqqani group on the State Department’s list of designated terrorist organisations. Responding to growing demands from American lawmakers to tag the Haqqani network as a terrorist group, Clinton on September 28 said the United States was close to a decision on whether it makes such a declaration. “We are in the final, formal review that has to be undertaken to make a government-wide decision to designate the network as a foreign terrorist organisation,” Clinton told reporters in Washington.
However, in making the Oct 11 statement suggesting the US wants to keep its options open for a deal with militant groups as it seeks peace in a region known for historic merry-go-round of political and military alliances, Hillary Clinton has indicated that the Haqqanis will stay off the terrorist list in near future, mainly because Washington considers it as being in the strongest position among militant groups to unravel the US plan of stabilising Afghanistan before the scheduled withdrawal next year.
In fact, the Taliban of Afghanistan had been designated as a “Foreign Terrorist Organisation” under the US Treasury Department’s Executive Order No 13224, issued on September 23, 2001. But the current status of the Haqqani network as an insurgent group allows the White House to hold talks without breaking American criminal law - unless, like the Afghan Taliban, it is declared a terrorist outfit.
=================================================
thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=72551&Cat=2
No comments:
Post a Comment