WASHINGTON – A top US official has reminded Pakistan that it is still “onnotice” to eliminate terror havens from its territory and said thatWashington wants unequivocal cooperation in ending sanctuaries enjoyed bythe Taliban on its soil.
“Pakistan is on notice that we expect its unequivocal cooperation endingsanctuaries that the Taliban have enjoyed since the remnants of theirtoppled regime fled into Pakistan in 2001,” said Ambassador Alice Wells,Senior Bureau Official for South and Central Asian Affairs, in a testimonybefore the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday.
Wells told the committee that the current US administration was workingwith Pakistan to uproot Taliban from its soil.
In this year’s New Year Day message, US President Donald Trump accusingPakistan of “taking billions and billions of dollars” from Washington while“housing the same terrorists” that it was supposed to fight. Later, hesuspended more than two billion dollars of security aid to Pakistan.
Islamabad had rejected the allegations as “unfounded”.
In her testimony on “US policy towards Afghanistan”, Wells said: “Despitesome positive indicators, we have not yet seen Pakistan take the sustainedor decisive steps that we would have expected to see 10 months after theannouncement of the (Trump administration’s) South Asia strategy.”
In her message to Pakistan, she asked it to work with the US to bring theTaliban to the negotiating table and arrest or expel those elements in themilitant group that do not join the peace process.
Talking about Afghanistan, Wells said that the US was encouragingreconcilable elements within the Afghan Taliban to stop fighting in aneffort to reduce violence and make the environment conducive forreconciliation.
She identified four key areas where the US was working to help bolsterprospects for an eventual settlement.
They were: Supporting Afghan efforts to reduce violence and protect a peaceprocess from spoilers, encouraging all political actors — including theTaliban — to participate in the peace process, supporting Kabul’s effortsto eliminate the conditions that cause militancy and encouragingAfghanistan’s neighbours to back the peace process.
Wells also called upon the Afghan Taliban to snap ties with Al Qaeda,submit to the Constitution and ensure protection of women’s rights. -Agencies