Washington, July 15: US President Donald Trump’s outreach to Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir may seem like transactional diplomacy, but the approach is “dangerously short-sighted”, a report has stated.
The Trump administration has relied on Munir as a principal intermediary in US-Iran diplomacy, welcoming him to the White House and highlighting Pakistan’s role in conveying messages and facilitating dialogue during times of heightened tensions.
However, the US strategy overlooks fundamental strategic divergences, rewarding a military establishment whose growing grip on power at home is destabilising the region the United States aims to stabilise, Siddhant Kishore, a Washington-based national security and foreign policy analyst, wrote in ‘The Cipher Brief’.
He mentioned that if the US elevates Munir without insisting on accountability, it would neither bring stability to South Asia nor the Middle East. Instead, he argued, it will legitimise a military regime that has learned to profit from crisis, repression and its strategic geography, reflecting “short-termism” disguised as diplomacy. (IANS)
