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Syed Talat Hussain In the short-term, which is the dominant concern, Washington wants a smooth, bloodless, uncomplicated withdrawal of soldiers and sinews of its $2-trillion war from Afghanistan. It is positioning its air and sea-based resources to remove any hurdle that could subvert the process, but would obviously need Pakistan’s full assurance that it will extend a helping hand (both hands in fact) and commit to dealing with complexities that might pop up. Pakistan is saying “yes”. It wants all lines of withdrawal to stay open and secure through Pakistan’s jurisdiction. Pakistan is saying “sure”.  It also wants the Taliban to behave while it winds up its tent. Pakistan is expected to take the lead in achieving this goal. Pakistan is saying, “trying our best.”  It also wants Pakistan to do intelligence sharing far more deeply than it has done so far. Withdrawal means less intel gathering capacity (other than that capacity that is tech-based). Pakistan is expected to be a sp...

Syed Talat Hussain A Voice of America report out of Islamabad quotes the Taliban representative sounding a dire warning to the newly-arrived Biden Administration. “If they remain in Afghanistan after this [the agreed deadline] we will also kill them even if somebody rewards us or does not reward us. We take our reward from God. We fight the invaders without a reward, without any bounty,” the report cites Sher Mohammad Stanikzai, a senior Taliban leader.  The context of the warning is a review of the Doha Agreement that is underway in Washington from where the signals are that the Joe Biden team may revisit the whole deal signed with much hope and hype last year by the Trump Administration.  The Talibaan anticipating a negative review may be attempting to forewarn the US of the consequences of reopening the Agreement. Hence the death threat. The Biden Administration’s review is pegged onto the assessment that the Taliban has used the Agreement to expand their influence in Afgh...

Syed Talat Hussain The dash to Kabul by the chief of army staff General Qamar Bajwa and DG  ISI General Faiz Hameed, and their meetings with Ashraf Ghani and  Abdullah Abdullah, have again bred optimism that the final peace deal  on Afghanistan can be secured, paving the way for the US to pull out  with some grace and some workable political arrangement to emerge in  its wake. Those familiar with the proceedings in Kabul have told me that there  are strong chances of intra-Afghan peace talks formally starting in  the next few days in Doha. The Taliban are waiting for the last batch  of their 1500 prisoners to be released and when that number is  reached, the table will be laid for the intra-Afghan dialogue in all  earnest. This may sound too good to be true; the more so since the February  2020 landmark peace deal between the Taliban and the US  administration has been collapsing in slow-motion with violence  escalating an...