KABUL — The Afghan police general watched on television as Pakistani soldiers solemnly saluted the coffins of their 24 comrades killed in a U.S. military airstrike early Saturday. The general stood up in disgust. “That’s the best thing America has done in 10 years here,” he said.
While U.S. officials scrambled to repair the tattered relationship with Pakistan, Afghan officials have taken a tougher line. Frustrated by a Taliban insurgency they are convinced is supervised by and stationed in Pakistan, they have expressed little remorse.
The decision Tuesday by Pakistan’s Cabinet to boycott next week’s international conference on Afghanistan in Bonn, Germany, seemed likely to keep the mutual suspicion between the neighbors simmering. The conference was once seen as a chance to lure Taliban representatives to negotiate, but that plan never materialized.
The meeting’s importance depends on whether it can convey that the countries in the region, as well as the West, are committed to supporting Afghanistan’s government and working together to end the war.
Pakistan’s cooperation is crucial in this regard — particularly given its influence over the Taliban — and its absence would be a clear symbol that peace, a decade on, remains elusive.
