Officials say Pakistan cozying up to Afghans

[Forkboy]

Country seeks to forge alliance with Karzai

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan is exploiting the troubled US military effort in Afghanistan to drive home a political settlement with Afghanistan that would give Pakistan important influence there but is likely to undermine US interests, Pakistani and US officials said.

The dismissal of General Stanley A. McChrystal will almost certainly embolden the Pakistanis in their plan as they detect increasing US uncertainty, Pakistani officials said. The Pakistani army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, preferred McChrystal to his successor, General David H. Petraeus, whom he considers more of a politician than a military strategist, said people who had spoken recently with Kayani.

Pakistan is presenting itself as the new viable partner for Afghanistan to President Hamid Karzai, who has soured on the Americans. Pakistani officials say 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. In addition, Afghan officials say, the Pakistanis are pushing various other proxies, with Kayani personally offering to broker a deal with the Taliban leadership.

Washington has watched with some nervousness as Kayani and Pakistan’s spy chief, Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, shuttle between Islamabad and Kabul, telling Karzai that they agree with his assessment that the United States cannot win in Afghanistan and that a postwar Afghanistan should incorporate the Haqqani network, a longtime Pakistani asset. In a sign of the shift in momentum, the two Pakistani officials were next scheduled to visit Kabul next week, according to Afghan TV.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2010/06/25/officials_say_pakistan_cozying_up_to_afghans/