WASHINGTON: With Al Qaeda pushed out into Pakistan’s tribal areas, the original rationale for the war in Afghanistan — to ensure the country is not a safe haven again for Al Qaeda and global terrorism — has come under scrutiny, says British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

In a testimony before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday, Mr Miliband also said that the war in Afghanistan and the related challenges in Pakistan were the number one foreign policy priority for Britain.

Two of the three main foreign policy priorities of his government Mr Miliband outlined before the committee concerned Pakistan.

“The 1,600 mile Afghan border with Pakistan, the presence of Al Qaeda’s senior leadership in Pakistan’s border areas, and the links between the two countries, means that their stability needs to be addressed together,” said the foreign secretary while explaining why Pakistan enjoyed such a pivotal role in British plans for stabilising the South Asian region.

Mr Miliband claimed that the Afghan Taliban leadership was based primarily in Pakistan. Senior commanders were also there and under the leadership of Mullah Omar, they provide strategic direction to insurgents over the border, if not operational command, directed at retaking territory and power in Afghanistan, he added.

The so-called Pakistan Taliban, he said, were a loose collection of insurgent leaders mainly in Waziristan, and were primarily focussed eastwards against the authority of the Pakistani state.

Mr Miliband stressed that Al Qaeda coordinated tactically with both branches of the Taliban, but had a separate mission and religious ideology, focussed on mounting terrorist attacks outside the Pashtun tribal belt.

The Haqqani network, he noted, was linked to all the insurgent groups, and was based in Waziristan, but able directly to command and mount attacks in Afghanistan.

Mr Miliband claimed that the fighters within Afghanistan drew on external funding, support and shelter and militants moved freely across the border with Pakistan.

 

The insurgencies in the South and East of Afghanistan were directed partly from across the border in Quetta, Peshawar and Waziristan, he said.

The Pakistani offensives over the last year in Swat, Dir, Buner and more recently in Waziristan were therefore a significant development, he noted.

With more than 3,000 Pakistanis killed over the last year, the focus of the military operations has been terrorists who attack Pakistan, said Mr Miliband but hoped that over time, “Pakistan’s leaders will need to broaden its fight to address Al Qaeda’s leadership and the full range of other militant groups, not just those who pose the most direct threat to Pakistan.”

And to enable Pakistan to win this war, said Mr Miliband, the international community would not only have to help strengthen security in the border regions, but it will also need to help Pakistan create the political and economic conditions that would ensure lasting stability.

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