Trump sends letter to Pakistan, asking for help with Afghan peace process

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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said Monday that he had received a letter from President Donald Trump,

asking for his government’s help and cooperation in advancing peace talks with the Afghan Taliban insurgents.

Both the Foreign Ministry and Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry confirmed that the letter had been received. Chaudhry said the U.S. president had told Khan that relations with Pakistan were “very important” to solving the Afghan conflict, especially in helping to bring the insurgents to the negotiating table.

The letter, which has not been publicly confirmed by U.S. officials, would be the first direct communication between Trump and Khan since he took office as prime minister in August. The two leaders did, however, post an angry exchange of tweets two weeks ago after Trump told Fox News he had cut aid to Pakistan because it would “take our money and do nothing for us.”

The reported request from Trump came as his special envoy for Afghan peace, Zalmay Khalilzad, was expected to arrive in Pakistan Tuesday for further talks on the issue. His previous visits have been received cordially but not resulted in any concrete agreements.

The Trump administration is eager for the peace talks to move forward and the conflict to end after 17 years. Khalilzad has met with Taliban leaders and a variety of regional officials over the past several months, but there has been no breakthrough. The insurgents continue to insist that foreign forces must leave the country under any deal, and that they will only negotiate with U.S. officials.

Trump has made numerous critical comments about Pakistan in the past, some of them sarcastic in tone, and he suspended military aid last year to the longtime U.S. security ally, saying it had not done enough to rein in a branch of the Taliban insurgents, known as the Haqqani network, who U.S. officials believe shelters inside the Pakistani border with Afghanistan.

In the recent series of tweets, Trump complained that the United States had given hundreds of millions of dollars to Pakistan, but officials there had “never informed us” that Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, was living there in a city near a major Pakistan army facility. Bin Laden was killed in a raid there by U.S. Navy SEALs in 2011.

Khan, in turn, retorted angrily in a tweet that the “record needs to be put straight on Mr. Trump’s tirade against Pakistan.” He said his country had suffered more than 75,000 casualties in the war on terror and had agreed to cooperate with the United States in that effort, even though “no Pakistani was involved” in the attacks of Sep. 11, 2011.

“Instead of “making Pakistan a scapegoat for their failures,” Khan tweeted, the United States should undertake a “serious assessment” of why, after a war involving hundreds of thousands of NATO and Afghan troops and more than $1 trillion in costs, “the Taliban today are stronger than ever before.”

On Monday, the message reportedly sent by Trump was far more diplomatic and polite, and it couched Pakistan’s role as potentially constructive and helpful in ending the Afghan war, rather than as part of the problem. Pakistani officials, in turn, welcomed the letter.

“Since Pakistan has always advocated a political settlement to end war in Afghanistan, the U.S. decision is welcomed,” said a statement from the Foreign Ministry. “Pakistan reiterates its commitment to play a facilitation role in good faith. Peace and stability in Afghanistan remains a shared responsibility.”

The statement said Trump “has also acknowledged that the war had cost both USA and Pakistan. He has emphasized that Pakistan and USA should explore opportunities to work together and renew partnership.”