Reuters After years of demanding Pakistan crack down on militants in a lawless tribal area on its border with Afghanistan, the United States has now set out a possibly tougher challenge - bring those militants to the peace table. It's a tough task. Ties have been strained between the two allies for months since Osama Bin Laden was found holed up in a town two hours from Islamabad. And there are doubts the Pakistanis can, or will, persuade the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network to take part in the nascent peace process to end the Afghan war. On a two-day visit to Islamabad last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanded that Pakistan deny the group any safe haven in the border zone. The network is one of the most effective factions of the Afghan Taliban-led insurgency and was blamed for an attack on the US Embassy in Kabul last month, But talking with militant groups has been a long-standing effort by the United States as it prepares to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, and Clinton herself said there had been US overtures to the Haqqanis. Now she wants Pakistan's help. “We think that Pakistan, for a variety of reasons, has the capacity to encourage, to push, to squeeze ... terrorists, including the Haqqanis and the Afghan Taliban, to be willing to engage on the peace process,” she said during her visit. Clinton's comments seemed to be well-received by a Pakistan public weary of war and increasingly convinced the US-led global fight against militancy is not its battle. Pakistan says it has sacrificed more than any other country and says up to 40,000 civilians, troops and security personnel have been killed since 2001. But it also reflects the reality that the United States is running out of options in Afghanistan. “They have recognized the principle of talking to the Taliban. It's almost a natural thing to talk to the others,” said Ayesha Siddiqa, a noted defense analyst. “And secondly, what are the options?” Across Afghanistan, US and NATO forces have been unable to deal a decisive blow to Taliban insurgents and their allies like the Haqqanis, blamed for a series of bold attacks on American targets. More than 2,700 NATO troops have been killed since 2001, as well as more than 11,000 civilians. Many thousands more have been wounded. But it's an open question as to whether Pakistan will use whatever influence it may have to bring the Haqqanis off the battlefield, because Pakistan and the United States do not have the same interests in the region. “In the long run, the United States will have to get realistic about the region,” wrote Christophe Jaffrelot, a senior research fellow at the Center for International Studies and Research at Sciences Po in Paris. “It might just have to admit that the Pakistanis do not believe that the two countries share interests, even if Washington continues to pretend that they do.” __
