NEW YORK: The Trump administration’s attempt at “humiliating andpenalizing” Pakistan for failing to take decisive action against AfghanTaliban is unlikely to work, Richard Olson, a former American ambassador toPakistan, said Tuesday, warning that Islamabad has greater leverage overthe United States.
“Pakistan, like most countries, reacts very badly to public attempts toforce its hand. It is likely to respond by showing how it can trulyundercut our position in Afghanistan,” Olson, who also served as thespecial representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said in an articlepublished in the The New York Times in which he assessed the impact of thedecision to withhold security assistance to Pakistan.
“For the past 16 years our military efforts in landlocked Afghanistan havebeen dependent on transit through and especially overflight of Pakistaniterritory,” he wrote. “Absent an implausible similar arrangement with Iran,other options are not good. Supply through the Central Asian states to thenorth is theoretically possible, but would rely on Russian good will.Enough said. Without Pakistani cooperation, our army our army inAfghanistan risks becoming a beached whale.”
The harsh truth, Olson added, was that American leverage over Pakistan hasbeen declining. “And as United States aid levels have diminished –reflecting bipartisan unhappiness with Pakistani policy – aid from theChinese has increased,” referring to China’s investment of $62 billion inPakistani infrastructure under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).“Its magnitude and its transformation of parts of Pakistan dwarf anythingthe United States has ever undertaken,” the ex-Us envoy said.
“Thus, the Trump administrations attempt at humiliating and penalizingPakistan is unlikely to work,” he emphasized.
“The path of the tweet and highly public aid cuts is not a method that willengender success. The United States can address Afghanistan only with apolitical initiative.
“The Trump administration has publicly stated that it sees the conflictending only through a negotiated solution. It is difficult to understandwhy no such diplomatic initiative had been started.”