Geo World

US secretly met Haqqani leadership

WASHINGTON: The relationship between Pakistan and the US was thrown into a state of turmoil following Admiral Mike Mullen’s allegations that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had helped the Haqqani network launch an attack against the US embassy in Kabul. In the latest development a leading US newspaper The Wall Street Journal has reported that US officials secretly met with the leadership of the Haqqani network, a meeting Mullen did not speak of. US officials met with the leaders of the Haqqani network this summer in an effort to draw them into talks on winding down the Afghan war. Washington has publicly scorned the group, which is blamed with bringing a new level of violence to the Afghan insurgency and is at the center of the deteriorating US relationship with Pakistan. Pakistan and US officials said the push to draw the Haqqanis into talks has yielded little. The US says Haqqani fighters were responsible for a 20-hour assault last month on the US embassy and the nearby North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters in Kabul. But the behind-the-scenes American effort reflects the growing realization that a military campaign alone won't bring the Haqqanis to heel—and that compromises are needed to wind down US involvement in Afghanistan. US officials had already reached that conclusion about the Taliban—saying that losses on the battlefield would drive Taliban leaders to the negotiating table. The official declined to discuss the talks with the Haqqanis, describing them as "early and not very well defined." The senior US official said there had been at least one meeting over the summer between US officials and Haqqani representatives. The meeting was set up by the ISI agency. The State Department wouldn't comment directly on outreach to the Haqqanis. Spokesman Mark Toner, citing previous comments by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said: "We have a broad range of contacts across Afghanistan and the region…these contacts are preliminary in nature." A Pakistani official said Islamabad began facilitating contacts with the Haqqanis late last year and set up the meeting this summer in a Persian Gulf country. The Afghan government didn't take part. The US wouldn't identify the participants; however it was claimed that the network was represented by Jalaluddin Haqqani's son, Ibrahim Haqqani.