Daily brief: Pakistan to boycott Afghanistan summit

By Andrew Lebovich Share

Job Board: The New America Foundation's National Security Studies Program is now accepting applications for a year-long research fellowship working on issues of countering domestic radicalization and violent extremism (NAF).

Regional exit

Pakistan's government announced Monday that it will not participate in an upcoming conference in Bonn, Germany on Afghanistan's future, in protest to this weekend's bombing of two border posts in Mohmand by NATO forces that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers (BBC, Tel, AP, Reuters, ET, AFP). The decision came during a meeting of Pakistan's cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who promised in an interview with CNN Monday that there would be no more, "business as usual" with the United States following the raid (CNN, Reuters, ET, AFP/Dawn). In a briefing Tuesday Pakistani Gen. Ashfaq Nadeem called the incident a "deliberate act of aggression" by the United States, and said Pakistan was still deciding if they will cooperate with an American probe of the attack, whose results are due to be released December 23 (AP, Dawn).

Pakistan and the United States continue to dispute the events surrounding the bombing, as U.S. and Afghan officials describe a joint commando patrol near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border that came under attack from positions near or even inside the Pakistani army posts, while Pakistan has said the assault continued long after Pakistani forces identified themselves to NATO (Post, NYT, ET, BBC, AP, WSJ). President Barack Obama and other American leaders have called the incident a "tragedy" but refused to apologize (AFP/ET, Tel). The Pentagon said Monday that it would "carry on" in Afghanistan without supplies from Pakistan, which has closed its border to U.S. supplies, and Pakistan reportedly refused a request by the United Arab Emirates to review its decision to evict American personnel from the Shamsi airbase in Balochistan, which the Emirates are believed to control (AFP, ET, Dawn, AFP). 

Protests against the assault continued across Pakistan Monday, as tribal elders from Kurram, Orakzai and Kohat division offered to "take revenge" for the killings (Dawn, Dawn, Dawn). Gilani said Tuesday that he would call a joint session of Pakistan's parliament to discuss the Mohmand incident, as well as the "Memogate" scandal (Dawn).

Five stories round out the news: Police in Karachi seized a large supply of weapons in a graveyard Tuesday, while Interior Minister Rehman Malik blamed a "foreign hand" for recent sectarian violence in the city (ET, Dawn). Meanwhile, 14 militants were reportedly killed in fighting in Orakzai, and police said Tuesday that they had arrested a "high-ranking militant" in Nowshera (ET, Dawn). Issam Ahmed reports on disillusionment in Pakistani-administered Kashmir over the "autonomy" plan put in place in 2009 (CSM). And a new study in a British medical journal has found that allowing "lady health workers" to treat children with pneumonia in Pakistani homes, instead of sending sufferers to hospitals, ensures a much greater recovery rate from the illness (NYT).

Don't let me down

Yaroslav Trofimov lays out Afghan government concerns about ensuring a long-term fiscal commitment to Afghanistan at next week's Bonn conference, with officials saying the country will need $10 billion per year from donors after international forces withdraw (WSJ). Laura King looks ahead to likely trouble spots in the postwar relationship between Afghanistan and the United States, amidst signs that the United States and other nations plan to withdraw as many as 40,000 troops by the end of 2012 (LAT, AP). And the BBC reports that an Indian consortium has been awarded a $10.3 billion contract to develop three iron ore mining sites in central Afghanistan (BBC).

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday that top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan Gen. John R. Allen had ordered American forces retrained in avoiding civilian casualties, following the deaths of six children and one adult in Kandahar province last week (AP, AFP). And Ray Rivera, Sharifullah Sahak and Eric Schmitt have a must-read on American suspicions that the insurgent Haqqani Network, working with al-Qaeda, has set up two assassination squads in Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan targeting individuals suspected of working with American forces (NYT). 

Finally, Reuters reports on how attempts by an Afghan rape victim named Gulnaz to obtain a presidential pardon for her imprisonment on adultery charges may set a precedent for helping future rape victims escape the same fate (Reuters). 

Food fight

The imam of Lahore's Badshahi Mosque is fighting a plan to develop a "food street" behind the mosque, saying in part that the street would lead to "un-Islamic activities" (DT). The new development was scheduled to open in 2010, but has been hit by a series of delays. 

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BANARAS KHAN/AFP/Getty Images

 

VARDHANK

11:14 AM ET

November 29, 2011

Perhaps it's for the best

Maybe, just maybe, the shutting of Pakistan's borders to US forces is a good thing: in fact, anything that weans the US away from any ideas of Pakistan being an ally, is a good thing. Pakistan is most definitely not an ally in the war against terror, and US taxpayer money is going, directly or indirectly, to fund the very militants that are fighting American soldiers in Afghanistan. The sooner the US and its allies learn to not worry about a Pakistani reaction, the sooner they'll be able to take the fight to the lair and factory of terrorism, Pakistan itself.

Re Pakistan's boycott of the summit, so what? As if Pakistan's ever going to have Afghanistan's interests at heart. What such summits need to figure out is how to keep Pakistan from meddling in its western neighbour, and all will be well. Afghanistan might never be a unified modern-style state, but that's something for the Afghan people to decide, not us. We can help build their infrastructure and help them use ploughshares instead of Kalashnikovs (and, hopefully, try and spread a tolerant version of Islam in the country), but the rest is up to the Afghans.

 

STRIVER

2:07 PM ET

November 30, 2011

Afghanistan's interest...

...rather a naive comment. But that is expected from the average FP reader.

 

MARTY MARTEL

4:43 PM ET

November 29, 2011

Good riddance, Pakistan

Had there been no Pakistan, there would have been no Taliban and US would never have to wage a war in Afghanistan.

As such Pakistan has been blackmailing US all these years by running with the Taliban terrorist hares while hunting with the American hounds.

Sooner this rupture between US and Pakistan solidifies, sooner the solution to America’s Afghan problem will materialize.

Only way to solve Afghan problem is for US/NATO to go in Pakistan and permanently destroy those Haqqani/Mullah Omar hideouts being protected by Pakistani Army.

Let us see if America has any stamina left to complete the task of eradicating terrorism from its roots.

 

STRIVER

2:16 PM ET

November 30, 2011

Dream on...

.....only a pathetic mind set can churn out filth as you do on FP.

Given a gun in your hand your first and last victim will be a Muslim.

You are a Hindu nut-case made of the same substance as the Hindu RSS and BJP that killed thousands of Muslim Indians.

No point in holding an intellectual discourse with the likes of you. Historical references and facts matter little your prejudices have have over-taken your mind.

But don't die ignorant. Learn some facts. You owe it to yourself and your next generation.

 

JHONATHENTUCKER

6:30 PM ET

November 29, 2011

Who said ?

Who said this that pakistan will boycott the Afghanistan ??
They our brothers and we are not going to do like this with them. :(
that was operated out of Afghanistan and killed at least two dozen Pakistani soldiers became clearer on Sunday, as Pakistan seethed over the attack and the United States scrambled to contain the damage to an already frayed relationship.
Afghan officials, meanwhile, worried that they would bear the immediate brunt of Pakistan’s wrath and that the Pakistanis would follow through on threats to withdraw from an international conference on Afghanistan’s security and development that is scheduled for Dec. 5.

In her talk with Mrs. Clinton, Ms. Khar conveyed the “deep sense of rage felt across Pakistan,” according to a government statement. Demonstrations expressing anger at the United States broke out in major cities across the country.

The episode “negates the progress made by the two countries on improving relations and forces Pakistan to revisit the terms of engagement,” Ms. Khar was quoted as saying.

An investigation is under way to determine how the attack occurred, said NATO officials, who declined to discuss it until the inquiry was completed. Diplomats in Afghanistan who were briefed on the preliminary findings said that a joint NATO and Afghan force operating along the border came under sustained fire late Friday or early Saturday — it is not clear from whom — and called in air support.

The coalition forces tried to contact the Pakistani military on the other side of the border. It is unclear whom they reached, but the coalition forces believed they were free to fire back, and the aircraft struck positions in Pakistan, according to diplomats.

The Pakistani government said 24 people had been killed, but accounts near the scene in the Mohmand tribal region said the toll was as high as 28.

The cross-border strike not only resulted in more deaths than previous attacks, but it also occurred at a particularly tense moment in relations between Pakistan and the United States, and between Pakistan and Afghanistan, said diplomats and analysts in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“There have been incidents like this before, incidents where three or four Pakistanis regrettably died, but 25 people or more, that’s on a different scale,” said a Western diplomat in Kabul who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the subject.
Meanwhile, in Kabul, the Afghan government said it was concerned about Pakistan’s threat to shun the conference on Afghanistan’s future in Bonn, Germany. Aimal Faizi, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, urged Pakistan not to punish Afghanistan for NATO’s actions.

A spokesman for the Afghan Foreign Ministry, Janan Mosazai, described the conference as important “in terms of the vision the Afghan government will be sharing with the international community, with the region, in the 10 years after transition.”

The conference, to which more than 50 countries are sending representatives, was organized to showcase the international commitment to Afghanistan’s security and to reassure Afghans and potential foreign investors about the nation’s future.

If Pakistan, which is widely seen as a seedbed for the Afghan insurgency, refuses to participate, those goals could be undermined, leaving little doubt that the fighting will continue, according to Western diplomats and military officials.

Mr. Mosazai said the Afghan government had been contacted by Pakistan’s ambassador in Kabul, but he did not elaborate. But Pakistani officials said they had strongly protested to their Afghan counterparts about the “use of Afghan territory against Pakistan” and urged the government to prevent similar attacks.
Mr. Karzai promised that Afghan soil would never be used to attack neighboring countries. Although he was speaking about the strategic partnership that he is negotiating with the United States, the issue has resonated in the region, where both Iran and Pakistan fear the American military presence in Afghanistan.

Mr. Faizi, the president’s spokesman, said the government stood by that commitment, and the assembly, with more than 2,000 participants, endorsed it.

“These bases will not be used against any neighboring country,” he said. “That’s the advice of the Afghan people and, of course, the president. We stand by that. and agenda software

Alissa J. Rubin reported from Kabul, and Salman Masood from Islamabad, Pakistan. Steven Lee Myers contributed reporting from Washington.

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