Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry. – File Photo by AFP

WASHINGTON: Pakistan can and will like to bring the Haqqani group to the negotiating table if the US was to ask it to do so, experts told the Senate.

The issue of Pakistan’s alleged links to the Haqqani network was raised at a Senate hearing where John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, asked the witnesses to explain if Islamabad could sever those ties.

“I think it’s going to be very, very difficult for the Pakistanis to abandon the Haqqani network, although perhaps not impossible,” said one of the witnesses, Peter Bergen.

The senator’s next question showed at least his, if not the US administration’s, interest in a rapprochement with the Haqqani network. Reports in the US media suggest that as the US seeks to gradually disengage itself from Afghanistan, it is looking at various options for peacefully ending the conflict but so far no US official has suggested reconciliation with the Haqqani network.

“Impossible for them (Pakistanis) to reach some kind of an understanding with the Haqqani network? They bring them into the process. Be part of the negotiation with Taliban. Is that easier?” Senator Kerry asked.

“That would be a very rational thing for them to do, at the end of the day. And they are capable of doing that, and that would be an enormous way forward,” said Mr Bergen.

He noted that while the Afghan Taliban did not have much of a relationship with Al Qaeda, the Haqqani network did and also protected Al Qaeda militants. “So the biggest key to moving forward is getting the Haqqani network to basically change sides, and I don’t think that’s out of the question,” he said.