NEW YORK – US President Barack Obama and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency were at variance on Sunday in assessing the Afghanistan peace deal being promoted by Pakistan between the Afghan government and some Taliban militants.
While urging caution, Obama, in Canada, called the Pakistani move “useful step”, saying a political solution to the conflict was necessary and suggested elements of the Taliban insurgency could be part of negotiations. But, earlier in the day, CIA Cirector Leon Panetta forcefully expressed his doubts about the plan.
“We have seen no evidence that they are truly interested in reconciliation, where they would surrender their arms, where they would denounce Al-Qaeda, where they would really try to become part of that society,” Panetta said in Washington on ABC’s “This Week”.
Acknowledging that the American-led counterinsurgency effort was facing unexpected difficulty, Panetta said that the Taliban and their allies had little motive to contemplate a power-sharing arrangement in Afghanistan.
But the President was diplomatic when asked about whether efforts by Pakistan and Afghanistan to reintegrate Taliban were a good idea.
“I think it’s too early to tell. I think we have to view these efforts with scepticism but also with openness,” the President said while responding to questions at a Press conference marking the end of the G-20 summit in Toronto, Canada.
According to the New York Times, the US President avoided any direct comment on whether the Haqqani network, the Taliban group reportedly proposed by Pakistan as part of a power-sharing deal, could become part of AfghanistanÂ’s future leadership.
But, he said, “conversations between the Afghan government and the Pakistani government, building trust between those two governments, are a useful step.”
Obama also said a political solution to the conflict was necessary and suggested elements of the Taliban insurgency could be part of negotiations.
He noted that as the Afghanistan war approached its 10th anniversary, it was the longest foreign war in American history, and that “ultimately as was true in Iraq, so will be true in Afghanistan, we will have to have a political solution.”
As for Pakistan’s effort to broker talks, Obama added, “I think it’s too early to tell. I think we have to view these efforts with scepticism but also with openness. The Taliban is a blend of hardcore ideologues, tribal leaders, kids that basically sign up because it’s the best job available to them. Not all of them are going to be thinking the same way about the Afghan government, about the future of Afghanistan. And so we’re going to have to sort through how these talks take place.”
The comments Sunday were the administrationÂ’s first public response to a report of PakistanÂ’s deal-brokering efforts last week in The New York Times.
On Saturday, The New York Times said AfghanistanÂ’s minority communities – Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara – have vowed to resist, and if necessary, fight, any deal that involves bringing members of the Taliban insurgency into a power-sharing arrangement with President Hamid KarzaiÂ’s government.
In an earlier dispatch in The Times, Pakistani officials were quoted as saying they can deliver the network of Sirajuddin Haqqani, an ally of Al-Qaeda who runs a major part of the insurgency in Afghanistan, into a power-sharing arrangement with the Afghan government.
American commanders have concluded that only a political settlement can end the war, the report said. But in helping Karzai to make a deal, they risk reigniting AfghanistanÂ’s ethnic strife.
The leaders of these minority communities say that President Karzai appears determined to hand Taliban leaders a share of power – and Pakistan a large degree of influence inside the country, according to The Times. The Americans, desperate to end their involvement here, are helping Karzai along and shunning the Afghan opposition, they say.
Agencies add: US President Obama contended America would be less secure if Al-Qaeda still could be housed in Afghanistan, and contended there remains “a vital national interest that Afghanistan not be used as a base to launch terrorist attacks”.
He also said the US intends “to be a partner for Afghanistan for the long term, but that is different than us having troops on the ground”, adding that a political solution is needed as well as a military one to the Afghan conflict.
Obama sought to shelve what he sees as a false choice between “either we get up and leave (Afghanistan) immediately because there’s no chance for a positive outcome or we stay indefinitely.”
Still, Obama said, “We’re going to need to provide assistance to Afghanistan for a long time to come.”
The US President said that he will conduct a review of his new strategy in December, fix what is not working and then begin the transition next year.
“That doesn’t mean that we suddenly turn off the lights and let the door close behind us,” Obama said.
Obama acknowledged that “there has been a lot of obsession around this issue of when do we leave.”
But he said he is more interested in implementing his strategy and seeing results, and he will review whether or not the strategy is working after the December review.
Obama offered a rationale for the nationÂ’s very presence in Afghanistan.
“You’ll often hear, why are we in Afghanistan when the terrorists are in Pakistan?” Obama said.