Pakistan can and will like to bring the Haqqani group to the negotiating table if the US was to ask it to do so, experts told the Senate. The issue of Pakistan’s alleged links to the Haqqani network was raised at a Senate hearing where John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, asked the witnesses to explain if Islamabad could sever those ties.
“I think it’s going to be very, very difficult for the Pakistanis to abandon the Haqqani network, although perhaps not impossible,” said one of the witnesses, Peter Bergen.
He noted that while the Afghan Taliban did not have much of a relationship with Al Qaeda, the Haqqani network did and also protected Al Qaeda militants. “So the biggest key to moving forward is getting the Haqqani network to basically change sides, and I don’t think that’s out of the question,” he said.
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