KABUL, Afghanistan – Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, on a two-day visit to shore up relations, promised yesterday to help Afghanistan combat the worsening Taliban insurgency, which operates from his country.
Relations between the two nations have deteriorated badly this year as the insurgency has bloomed, and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has blamed Pakistan for providing a safe haven to militants and suicide bombers.
He has called on the United States and its NATO allies, whose troops are deployed and dying in increasing numbers in southern Afghanistan, to press Pakistan to clamp down on the Islamic militants, which Pakistan has long used as an arm of foreign policy to pressure neighboring rivals Afghanistan and India.
The meeting yesterday came before state visits by both Musharraf and Karzai to Washington later this month, and a three-party meeting they are scheduled to hold with President Bush.
After a one-on-one session that ran well over its scheduled time, Musharraf and Karzai emerged with promises of greater cooperation, but hanging over all the declarations were questions about Pakistan's support for the insurgents, and whether Musharraf would follow through on his promises.
Karzai said at a joint briefing at the presidential palace in Kabul, “I am very happy today that President Musharraf assured me that he is going to try his best to get rid of this sickness in the region.”
Seth Jones, a RAND Corp. political scientist, said there was increasing evidence that Pakistan intelligence agents had been financing, training and providing intelligence and assistance to Taliban insurgents.
Musharraf's visit came the same day that Afghanistan signed an agreement with NATO on greater cooperation. Ambassadors of the North Atlantic Council have been visiting Afghanistan this week. NATO plans to assume military command of eastern Afghanistan in coming weeks.
