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Pakistan rejects claims of ongoing ties with Taliban

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, center left, talks with Afghan counterpart Zalmai Rasool during their meeting in Kabul, Afghanistan, Feb. 1, 2012.
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, center left, talks with Afghan counterpart Zalmai Rasool during their meeting in Kabul, Afghanistan, Feb. 1, 2012. Pool,AP Photo/S.Sabawoon

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's foreign minister on Wednesday strongly rejected a secret NATO report leaked to the BBC suggesting that members of the Pakistani security services continue to help the Taliban in Afghanistan, underscoring a highly contentious issue between the country and its Western partners.

"This is old wine in an even older bottle. I don't think these claims are new. These claims have been made for many, many years," said Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan's foreign minister, during a visit to Kabul, the Afghan capital, on Wednesday. Khar's visit, meant to tide over friction between the two countries, was partially overshadowed by the report's leak.

A senior security official in Islamabad who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity claimed that the report was inspired by "Western troops losing ground in Afghanistan and now looking for scapegoats. ... the Western world should ask itself, why are we losing the war, rather than pointing fingers at Pakistan."

Report: NATO says Pakistan aiding Taliban

A senior Western diplomat in Islamabad said the report was a powerful reminder of the complex trilateral relationship between Pakistan, the U.S.-led Western alliance seeking to stabilize Afghanistan and the community of Islamic militants including al Qaeda and the Taliban. Pakistan is known to have maintained close ties in the past with the Taliban but says it turned its back on the hardline movement after the 9/11 terrorist attacks when the country joined the U.S.-led global coalition against terror.

However, one senior Western diplomat said the inter services intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's powerful counter espionage agency, continues to retain some of its previous ties.

"The ISI knows the Taliban in Afghanistan like the back of its hand. It (the ISI) continues to remain in touch with those militants but the crucial question is whether the ISI still gives arms and money," said the official, who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity. "The relationship (between the ISI and the Taliban) is certainly nowhere as close as it was before the 9/11 attacks and I doubt if there are any serious supplies of weapons taking place."

Before 9/11, Pakistan was the only country that not only recognized the Taliban but also maintained a full-time embassy in the Afghan capital. However, some Western officials believe, Pakistan's decision to abandon the Taliban after 9/11 was just a partial scaling down of ties, not a complete break.

"Pakistan continues to see its ties to the Taliban as an asset for the future. One day, there will be serious negotiations and possibly a peace agreement in Afghanistan and Pakistan will then be able to make use of its ties to the Taliban," said a second Western official in Islamabad. "I don't believe Pakistan is arming or funding these people in a significant way. But if I was Pakistan, I would keep my channels of communication open (with the Taliban) and that's what Pakistan seems to have been doing."

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