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ShareNEW YORK: President Barack Obama is leaning hard on Pakistan to step up its fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda.
National security adviser, general James Jones, made an unannounced visit to Islamabad to spell out US demands. In the final stages of drafting a new Afghanistan war strategy, Obama's attention has shifted to Pakistan.
The US has praised Pakistani military operations in south Waziristan but wants it to combat hordes of extremists who have escaped to north Waziristan. As the president traveled to Asia, the tough-talking Jones was sent to Islamabad with a letter for Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari.
The New York Times said Obama expected Zardari to rally the nation's political and national security institutions in a "united campaign against extremists".
In the letter to Zardari, Obama offered new incentives to Pakistan for its cooperation, including enhanced intelligence sharing and military cooperation. "The Americans are now trying, as the Bush administration did with little success, to persuade Pakistan to do more, not just against the Qaeda leadership holed up in the country's unruly tribal areas, but also against the Afghanistan Taliban leadership in the southern Pakistani city of Quetta and the Haqqani militant network in tribal areas," the Times said.
This US administration, like the previous one, is growing increasingly frustrated with senior Pakistani leaders who are only focused on who they think are threats to them. Many Pakistani leaders argue that their country needs a strong Taliban in Afghanistan to scuttle rising Indian influence in Kabul. Islamabad is putting counter-pressure on the US to get India to lower its profile in Kabul.
Prime minister Manmohan Singh's state visit to Washington next week will provide clues as to which way the wind is blowing. "The Obama administration should make it clear that it is not opposed to more Indian influence in Kabul. The US goal should be a sovereign Afghanistan, not the creation of an anti-Indian Pakistani satellite state," said Selig Harrison, director, Asia Program, Center for International Policy.
Singh is familiar with US frustrations with Pak's policy of running with the Taliban hare while hunting with the American hound. He will tell the White House that India is ready to play a greater role in shaping Afghan's future.
