The decision to blacklist the Haqqani network, by U.S.in a
an announcement made by Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton during a trip to Russia could rise tensions between
Washington and Islamabad very tense since Bin Laden’s killing by Navy Seals
last year, and have far-reaching implications for any reconciliation process in
Afghanistan.
Senior Haqqani commanders warned as much, saying that it
showed the United States was not sincere about peace efforts in Afghanistan.
The commanders also said it would bring hardship for America's only prisoner of
war, U.S. Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who is being held by the militants.
The Haqqanis, a Pashtun tribe with strongholds in
southeastern Afghanistan and across the border in Pakistan, are blamed by
Washington for an attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul and other assaults in
Afghanistan.
The United States accuses Pakistan's intelligence agency of
supporting the Haqqani network and using it as a proxy in Afghanistan to gain
leverage against the growing influence of its arch-rival India in the country.
Pakistan denies the allegations.
But whether to brand the group as a terrorist organization
has been the subject of intense debate within the Obama administration, with
some officials arguing it will have little real impact but risks setting back
Afghan reconciliation efforts.
Clinton said in a statement that she had told the U.S.
Congress she will brand the Haqqani network a foreign terrorist organization,
subjecting the group and its members to additional sanctions, including an
asset freeze.
"We also continue our robust campaign of diplomatic,
military and intelligence pressure on the network, demonstrating the United
States' resolve to degrade the organization's ability to execute violent
attacks," said Clinton, who was in Vladivostok for an Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
The United States also has targeted the Haqqanis with
military strikes. U.S. and Pakistani officials say they have high confidence
that Badruddin Haqqani, a top commander and son of the group's founder, was
killed in a U.S. drone strike last month.
Clinton signed the report to Congress on Friday in Brunei
stating that the network met the criteria to be designated as a foreign
terrorist organization, the State Department said. A U.S. official said the
formal designation would be made in the coming days.
Formal designation as a foreign terrorist organization would
increase pressure on the Pakistani government, but any actual effects beyond
that were unclear since most of the Haqqani leaders have already been
blacklisted individually.
It also remained unclear how much damage the U.S. decision
could do to ties with Islamabad. Relations have warmed slightly in recent
months following a U.S. apology for an airstrike that accidentally killed 24
Pakistani soldiers, but remain fraught.
A senior Pakistani security official said blacklisting the
Haqqani network would be counterproductive and would put unnecessary pressure
on Islamabad, a strategic U.S. ally.
"If the United States wants to have a constructive
relationship with Pakistan, then this is a bad move," the official said.
"This will push Pakistan into a corner."
A spokesman for Pakistan's embassy in Washington said:
"This is an internal matter for the United States. It is not our business.
The Haqqanis are not Pakistani nationals."
In June, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the United
States was reaching the limits of its patience with Pakistan because of the
safe havens that groups like the Haqqanis found there.
Designation by the State Department as a foreign terrorist
organization would bring sanctions such as criminal penalties for anyone
providing material support to the group and seizure of any assets in the United
States.
The Obama administration faced a congressional deadline this
weekend to determine whether the network met the criteria for such designation.
In Congress, both Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman
Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, and House of Representatives Homeland Security
Committee Chairman Peter King, a Republican, applauded the move and urged
Pakistan to do more to take on the Haqqanis.
"This is a terrorist organization and an enemy of the
United States, and I urge Pakistan to redouble its efforts - working with U.S.
and Afghan partners — to eliminate the Haqqani threat," Feinstein said in
a statement.
MAFIA GROUP
The Haqqanis run a sophisticated and diverse financial
network comparable to a mafia group, according to a July report by the Center
for Combating Terrorism.
It said the group raised money through kidnapping, extortion
and drug trafficking but also had a business portfolio that included
import/export, transport, real estate and construction interests in
Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Persian Gulf.
But the group has never had to deal with a sustained attack
on its finances, author Gretchen Peters said, and might be vulnerable to cash
flow choke points and attacks on its small and centralized command structure.
"Network leaders appear to be as motivated by
profit-making as they are driven by issues like revenge, honor and
ideology," the report said.
In Kabul, a government spokesman said any move by Washington
against the Haqqanis was welcome.
"This will be a major step by the United States against
the Haqqani network who are still plotting for dangerous and destructive
attacks against us," said Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi.
