NEWS FLASH

The Pakistani Role In Obsuring Peace In Afghanistan | Center for American Progress President and CEO John Podesta and CAP Senior Fellow Caroline Wadhams write in the Washington Post today that Pakistan has some decisions to make on whether it will be a partner to and support a lasting peace deal in Afghanistan. Insurgents last month assassinated former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, who also led the High Peace Council. Rabbani’s death should not mean the end of peace negotiations, Podesta and Wadhams write, adding in a meeting with the former leader two months ago, Rabbani “insisted that Taliban insurgents wanted to come to the negotiating table but that they were being held back by their Pakistani minders.” While Rabbani’s remarks “highlight the Pakistani role in obscuring peace,” Podesta and Wadhams say that “not all of Afghanistan’s problems stem from Pakistan.” “Afghans themselves,” they write, “have to work to find a more acceptable political outcome.”