WASHINGTON: The US Senate is urging the Trump administration to use a combination of sanction threats and offers of a long-term partnership to persuade Pakistan to stop “supporting Afghan insurgents”.

An amendment to the US National Defence Authorisation Act 2018 also suggests strictly conditioning further US military, economic and governance assistance programmes for Afghanistan upon measurable progress in achieving the benchmarks for implementing necessary institutional reforms, especially those related to anti-corruption, financial transparency and the rule of law.

Senator John McCain, who moved the amendment, chairs the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, and his legislative moves often get through Congress.

The section on Pakistan wants the US administration to “pursue an integrated civil-military strategy” that would achieve Washington’s strategic objectives by “imposing graduated diplomatic, military and economic costs on Pakistan as long as it continues to provide support and sanctuary to terrorist and insurgent groups, including the Taliban and the Haqqani network”.

To achieve this target, the amendment suggests “simultaneously outlining the potential benefits of a long-term US-Pakistan strategic partnership that could result from the cessation by Pakistan of support for all terrorist and insurgent groups and constructive role in bringing about a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Afghanistan”.

The proposed legislation emphasises the need for intensifying US regional diplomatic efforts, working through flexible frameworks for regional dialogue together with Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, India, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and other nations. Such efforts should aim to promote political reconciliation in Afghanistan by advancing regional cooperation on issues such as border security, intelligence sharing, counternarcotics, transportation and trade, says the amendment which was moved in the Senate on Friday, but its text was released on Saturday.

The move requires the US government to work with governments in the greater South Asian region to reduce mistrust and build confidence among regional states.

Sense of Congress

The Senate amendment 609 to NDAA-2018 includes a sense of Congress, requiring the administration to deny, disrupt, degrade and destroy the ability of terrorist groups to conduct attacks against the US, its allies and its core interests. The amendment also allows it to prevent the Taliban from using force to overthrow the Afghan government and reduce the Taliban’s control of the Afghan population.

The proposed legislation calls for strengthening the Afghan security forces and provides authorisation for using US forces to target militants of the Haqqani network, the Taliban and others.

The amendment asks the US president to ensure that the Secretary of Defence, the Secretary of State and US military commanders have all the necessary means based on political and security conditions on the ground in Afghanistan and unconstrained by arbitrary timelines, to carry out an integrated civil-military strategy in the war-torn country.

On July 14, the US House of Representatives adopted three legislative amendments seeking tougher conditions for reimbursement of defence funding to Pakistan.

The amendments require Pakistan to make satisfactory progress in the fight against terrorism if it wants to continue receiving the US assistance. Congressmen Dana Rohrabacher and Ted Poe, who moved the three amendments, have also sponsored a resolution that seeks to declare the country a state sponsor of terrorism.

Through a separate resolution, they are seeking to remove Pakistan from the list of major non-Nato allies, a designation that confers a variety of military and financial advantages that otherwise are not obtainable to non-Nato countries. Pakistan became a major non-Nato ally in 2004.

Last week, the Pentagon informed Pakistan that it would not make the remaining military reimbursements for the fiscal year 2016 because Defence Secretary Jim Mattis cannot certify that Islamabad had taken sufficient action against the Haqqani network.

The decision will immediately affect a reimbursement of about $50 million, as Congress had already reprogrammed $300m. Pakistan had already received $550m of the $900m reimbursement the country was authorised in 2016.

Pakistan is authorised to receive up to $900m of reimbursements in the current fiscal year. “Pakistan still has time to take action against the Haqqani network in order to influence the secretary’s certification decision in FY17,” the Pentagon said.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2017