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Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistans former military dictator, had secretly authorized the drone strikes, and some of the drones operated from bases inside Pakistan a policy that continued under his civilian successors. Under his rule, Pakistan audaciously denied having anything to do with the Afghan Taliban or its most sinister component, the Haqqani network.

But the United States presented evidence of Pakistans links to Afghan militants just as Pakistan transitioned from military to civilian rule in 2008. As Pakistans ambassador to the United States for the new civilian government, I urged Pakistans civil and military leaders to engage with Americans honestly instead of sticking to blanket denials.

Islamabads response was to argue that Pakistan does, indeed, support insurgents in Afghanistan, but it does so because of security concerns about India, which is seen by generals and many civilian leaders as an existential threat to Pakistan.

But that excuse is based on exaggerations and falsehoods. India has no offensive military presence in Afghanistan and there has never been any evidence that the Afghans are willing to be part of Indias alleged plan for a two-front war with Pakistan.

Afghanistans president, Ashraf Ghani, recently asked India to train Afghan military officers and repair military aircraft after frustration with Pakistan, which failed to fulfill promises of restraining the Taliban and forcing them to the negotiating table.

Pakistans leaders question Afghanistans acceptance of economic assistance from India even though Pakistan does not have the capacity to provide such aid itself.

It seems that Pakistan wants to keep alive imaginary fears, possibly to maintain military ascendancy in a country that has been ruled by generals for almost half of its existence. For years Pakistani officials falsely asserted that India had set up 24 consulates in Afghanistan, some close to the Pakistani border. In fact, India has only four consulates, the same number Pakistan has, in Afghanistan.

Lying about easily verifiable facts is usually the tactic of governments fabricating a threat rather than ones genuinely facing one. As ambassador, I attended trilateral meetings where my colleagues rejected serious suggestions from Afghans and Americans to mitigate apprehensions about Indian influence in Afghanistan.

While evidence of an Indian threat to Pakistan through Afghanistan remains scant, proof of the presence of Afghan Taliban leaders in Pakistan continues to mount. Mullah Omar, the Talibans leader, reportedly died in a Pakistani hospital in 2013 and his successor, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, was killed in an American drone strike in Baluchistan Province in Pakistan last year.

The United States should not let Pakistan link its longstanding support for hard-line Pashtun Islamists in Afghanistan to its disputes with India.

Both India and Pakistan have a lot of blood on their hands in Kashmir and seem in no hurry to resolve their disagreement, which is rooted in the psychosis resulting from the subcontinents bitter partition. The two countries have gone through 45 rounds of summit-level talks since 1947 and have failed to reach a permanent settlement.

Linking the outcome in Afghanistan to resolution of India-Pakistan issues would keep the United States embroiled there for a very long time. The recent rise in Islamophobia in India and a more aggressive stance against Pakistan by Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not detract from recognizing the paranoiac nature of Pakistans fears.

The Bush administration gave Pakistan $12.4 billion in aid, and the Obama administration forked over $21 billion. These incentives did not make Pakistan more amenable to cutting off support for the Afghan Taliban.

The Trump administration should now consider taking away Pakistans status as a major non-NATO ally, which would limit its priority access to American military technology. Aid to Pakistan should be linked to a sequence and timeline for specific actions against Taliban leaders.

Sanctions against individuals and institutions involved in facilitating Pakistan-based Taliban leaders and pursuing Taliban reconciliation talks without depending on Pakistan could be other measures signaling a firmer United States stance.

Moving away from an incentive-based approach would not be punishing Pakistan. The United States would be acting as a friend, helping Pakistan realize through tough measures that the gravest threat to its future comes from religious extremism it is fostering in its effort to compete with India.

Negotiating a peaceful settlement with the Taliban also remains desirable, but it is important to remember the difficulties 21st-century negotiators face while seeking compromise with seventh-century mind-sets.

Husain Haqqani, director for South and Central Asia at the Hudson Institute in Washington, was Pakistans ambassador to the United States from 2008 to 2011.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.

A version of this op-ed appears in print on July 7, 2017, in The International New York Times.

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To Win Afghanistan, Get Tough on Pakistan - New York Times

Afghanistan is ready for the "huge honour" of making their landmark Lord's debut, officials said ahead of next week's match, after a fairy-tale rise catapulted them into the elite club of Test nations last month.

The young side will be taking on the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), led by former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum, in what officials hope will be an "historic" 50-overs match at the Home of Cricket on July 11.

Quick Single: ICC announces two new Test nation

Sri Lanka legend Kumar Sangakkara and West Indies great Shivnarine Chanderpaul, both of whom are playing domestic cricket in the United Kingdom, will also feature for the MCC.

The Afghan side includes Indian Premier League stars Mohammad Nabi and teenage leg-spinner Rashid Khan, who took 17 wickets in his debut this year. Nabi was previously on the MCC Young Cricketers scheme.

Other players include captain Asghar Stanikzai, Noor Ali Zadran, Javed Ahmadi, Nasir Jamal, Samiullah Shenwari, Afsar Zazai, Shafiqullah Shafaq, Rahmat Shah, Gulbadin Naib, Dawlat Zadran, Shapoor Zadran and Farid Malik.

Both Afghanistan and Ireland were confirmed as full members at an International Cricket Council (ICC) meeting during its annual conference in London late June and will be eligible to play five-day Test cricket, widely regarded as the sport's supreme format.

"It will be a huge honour and experience for the team, as we will be playing for the first time there (at Lord's)," an Afghanistan Cricket Board spokesperson told AFP on Thursday.

Walking onto the pitch at Lord's will cap a dizzying rise for cricket-mad Afghanistan. Many Afghans' first contact with the game only took place during the 1980s and 1990s, in Pakistani refugee camps sheltering millions who fled the Soviet invasion.

The game struggled in the late 1990s under the regime of the hardline Islamist Taliban, who viewed sports as a distraction from religious duties.

But it has become hugely popular in the country since the Taliban were toppled in a US-led invasion in 2001.

Recent successes, particularly in last year's ICC World Twenty20 where Afghanistan defeated eventual champions West Indies in the group stage, have further raised the country's profile.

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Afghanistan's fairy-tale begins at Lord's - cricket.com.au

In essence, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan fight against terrorism and radicalism by reducing extreme poverty.

By M. Ashraf Haidari for The Diplomat

July 06, 2017

Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, relations between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan have consistently grown. But the past two years under the National Unity Government of Afghanistan have seen rapid expansion of bilateral ties between the two countries. Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and his Turkmen counterpart, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, share a vision of win-win economic cooperation, demonstrated through the initiation and implementation of numerous bilateral and multilateral economic and connectivity projects. These projects foremost bolster the two countries own economic growth, while ensuring prosperity and security throughout the region.

In essence, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan fight against terrorism and radicalism by reducing extreme poverty, which enables regional and global terrorist networks to prey on destitute, prospectless youth for radicalization and recruitment to destabilize South Asia and Central Asia. It is also poverty and a lack of job opportunities that enable a permissive environment for drug production and drug trafficking, which feeds regional and transnational criminality. Revenues from a criminalized economy in turn finance terrorism, undermining regional stability and thus impeding economic growth across South Asia and Central Asia.

Following a number of high level state visits exchanged between the two countries, Ghani visited Ashgabat on July 3, 2017 and signed seven bilateral cooperation agreements and MOUs with his counterpart. The two leaders built on their previousprogress in pushing forward bilateral and multilateral infrastructure, energy, and transportation projects that would further connect South Asia and Central Asia through Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Progress in the implementation of these much-needed projects would enable Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and others to harness their massive energy and connectivity potential for meeting their sustainable development goals (SDGs) at the heart of a rising Asia.

More specifically, in line with Afghanistans economy-centric foreign policy with a focus on promoting regional economic integration through full-spectrum connectivity, Ghani emphasized in Turkmenistan the importance of implementing multilateral energy and transportation projects. He and his counterpart welcomed continuing progress on the building of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) natural gas pipeline, whose full realization would help create economic inter-dependency against zer0-sum designs that stall regional economic growth.

Moreover, the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) and Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TUTAP) electricity projects were discussed. Their realization would increase urban and rural access to electricity, most benefiting households and small- and medium-sized businesses across the region. Electrification of rural Afghanistan and Pakistan would particularly help the two countries improve their dismal social development indicators in the areas of education and healthcare, where qualitative and quantitative improvements would generate a healthy, productive workforce needed to drive the two countries sustainable development.

The two sides also discussed the Afghanistan-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey (Lapis Lazuli) trade and transit corridor, as well as the Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Turkmenistan (TAT) railway, whose implementation would open alternative trade routes for the whole region. Two-way flow of not just trade and investment but also expansion of people-to-people contacts among South Asia, Central Asia, and Europe would help Afghans regain their countrys former status as the roundabout of the Silk Road.

That is why Afghanistan is an active member of every regional organization with a core objective of enhancing infrastructure and transportation connectivity. This year, Afghanistan joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and strongly supports Chinas Belt and Road Initiative. Thanks to Turkmenistan, Ashgabat will host the 7thRegional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA VII) this November. RECCA VII will highlight the progress Afghanistan and its neighbors have made on a number of key energy, infrastructure, and transportation projects, while presenting bankable investment opportunities to be taken advantage of by regional and international businesses.

Afghanistan renews its call on regional and global stakeholders to come together for win-win economic cooperation, even in the midst of war and violence imposed on the Afghan people. The expanding economic relationship between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan offers an example for emulation by others. Afghans continue extending a hand of friendship to all of our neighbors, including Pakistan, realizing that their collective secure future can only be achieved through a win-win economic vision pursued by the Afghan government.

A Visiting Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies (AISS), M. Ashraf Haidari is the Director-General of Policy & Strategy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan, and formerly served as the countrys Deputy Chief of Mission to India. Prior to this, he was Afghanistans Deputy Assistant National Security Advisor, as well as Afghan Charg dAffaires to the United States. He tweets @MAshrafHaidari

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Afghanistan and Turkmenistan: A Model for Regional Economic Cooperation - The Diplomat

Regional leaders attending the CASA-1000 meeting said stability in Afghanistan was important for the whole region.

Member countries of the CASA-1000 power project attended a meeting in Dushanbe in Tajikistan on Thursday where they stressed the need for more effort to be made in ensuring security and economic development in Afghanistan.

Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon said peace and stability in Afghanistan was critical in terms of implementing the project in the country.

Afghanistan was one of our main topics of discussion. Overcoming the Afghanistan situation and ensuring enduring peace and stability in the neighboring country is very important for our (regional countries) governments. We decided to have bilateral and quadrilateral cooperation in order to ensure lasting peace and stability (in Afghanistan), he stated.

Pakistans Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said the project was in the interests of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

CASA-1000 project will not only bring the avenues for Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan but will also mitigate electricity shortages in Pakistan and Afghanistan and increase the prospects for growth. It will also be a source of revenue for Afghanistan opening up greater business and investment opportunities , he said.

The Afghan government meanwhile said the meeting was a good opportunity to improve Kabul-Islamabad relations.

The goal of the project is to reiterate the commitment of all countries and banks who will finance the project, said Abdul Basir Azimi, deputy minister of energy and water.

The Presidential Palace said a trilateral meeting between Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan was one of the main purposes for President Ashraf Ghanis visit to Dushanbe.

One of the policies of the National Unity Government is to connect the interests of regional countries in the form of economic, trade and transit projects, Ghanis spokesman Shahussain Murtazawi said.

The CASA-1000 project will eventually transfer at least 1,000 megawatts of power from Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan via Afghanistan.

Work on the project kicked off last year and is expected to be completed in 2020. The project will cost more than one billion USD.

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Regional Countries Agree To Work For Peace In Afghanistan - TOLOnews

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, said the military had expressed concern about the hollowing out of the State Department.

The issue is again highlighting the United States militarys outsize role in Afghanistan, with American commanders even shouldering some of the diplomatic efforts around the country.

President Trump is expected to announce a troop increase of several thousand in addition to the roughly 8,800 American forces currently in Afghanistan in a dual mission of training and assisting Afghan forces and carrying out counterterrorism missions.

Pentagon officials have already hinted that the new strategy would not put a timeline on the increased military presence, essentially drawing the United States into another prolonged chapter of a war that has already dragged on for 16 years.

The political patience at home will depend on the clear articulation of a strategy going forward, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, said. We need a strategy in the United States that defines our role in Afghanistan, defines our objective and explains how we are going to get from here to there.

The United States diplomatic efforts in Afghanistan in recent years have been criticized for the turnover rate, what some officials have come to call an annual lobotomy.

Most of the midranking diplomats only come for one-year terms, and by the time they understand the complexity of the place, they are already headed for their next assignment.

The concern has grown in recent months as many of the senior positions in the State Department dealing with regional policy remain vacant, and the position of special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan was recently scrapped.

The role of the United States ambassador to Kabul has particularly been crucial in the past two years, as the coalition government brokered by former Secretary of State John Kerry has required constant hand-holding and mediation.

The coalition partners, President Ashraf Ghani and the governments chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, have struggled to see eye to eye on issues, throwing the government into long periods of stagnation amid a Taliban resurgence.

During one stretch of crisis in the relationship between the two leaders last year, P. Michael McKinley, the former ambassador, was meeting the two men almost daily and shuttling between other prominent leaders to help keep the arrangement together.

The political pressure on the government has only grown in recent months, after security forces opened fire and killed protesters outside the palace gates.

Much of Kabul remained under lockdown, with the palace bunkered by shipping containers stacked at its main entrances as protesters pitched tents outside. The tents were removed by violence again, with police officers killing two protesters when they forcibly removed the last tent.

Three of the countrys main political parties, including those led by Mr. Ghanis vice president as well as his foreign minister, recently announced a coalition which is expected to further the pressure on the president.

They accuse Mr. Ghanis government of keeping power monopolized by a small circle at the palace. At the center of the new coalition is Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, the leader of Junbish Party and Mr. Ghanis vice president.

The coalition was announced in Ankara, Turkey, where General Dostum is currently in de facto exile. The Afghan judicial system is trying to prosecute him and his bodyguards over accusations that they tortured and raped a political rival.

The security situation in Afghanistan has increasingly worsened over the past couple of years, with the Taliban overrunning districts, surrounding cities and inflicting heavy casualties on Afghan forces.

Afghanistans acting minister of defense, Maj. Gen. Tariq Shah Bahrami, told a news conference on Tuesday that there was fighting in 21 of the countrys 34 provinces, and that government forces were facing fierce fighting in seven of those provinces.

Heavy fighting continued for a third day on the outskirts of Kunduz, a city the Taliban overran twice in one year. Afghan forces were trying to clear Taliban checkpoints on the highway connecting Kunduz to Kabul.

Jawad Sukhanyar contributed reporting from Kabul, and Najim Rahim from Kunduz, Afghanistan.

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Senators, Visiting Afghanistan, Warn Trump Over Diplomatic Vacancies - New York Times