ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s ‘no’ to the American designs of installing so-called peace in Afghanistan in the shape of a puppet regime annoyed US to the extent of accusing and threatening, officials told this agency on Sunday.
According to the officials, the Americans became furious when Pakistan declined to play any role in an engineered peace without taking the Afghan people on board. “We told them (the Americans) that we would clap as you like but a peace without ownership and leadership of Afghans would not be durable,” the officials said.
“Pakistan had made it clear to the US that it would not compromise its own security to pamper self-styled American success in Afghanistan,” the officials said. They were of the view that maintaining stance that any solution in Afghanistan should be Afghan-led was a great success for Pakistan. “We paid the price and faced music in terms of the US allegations and threats of unilateral actions but we remained glued to our principled stance,” the official added.
However, they added, the saner sense prevailed in US and diplomatic perception of ‘working together’ was preferred to American military inhibitions. Now the two countries agreeing to work on a single work plan was a resultant of Pakistan’s success, they maintained.
According to the officials, Pakistan’s suggestion to include all groups of Afghan
militants including Haqqanis into the reconciliation process invited the American wrath especially from the US military establishment. The officials argued that Pakistan had asked the US to include all groups as per its long standing stance on the Afghan solution. – Agencies
