Alice G Wells Photo Screenshot/US Embassy in Jordan YouTube
The State Department has appointed a career diplomat as Acting Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan – a move intended to better coordinate the U.S. policy toward the region as well as coordinate efforts with the NATO allies.
A Voice of America news report says Secretary of State Rex Tillerson named Alice Wells, a Foreign Service Officer to head the office, clearing confusion over the future of the office amid downsizing speculations.
Wells, the acting assistant secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, began working on her new position on June 26 after he little publicized appointment. She has previously served U.S. Ambassador to Jordan and worked as diplomat in South Asia including Pakistan and India.
Washington has a high-stakes engagement with the region, where the United States still maintains more than 8000 troops to assist the Afghan security forces.
President Donald Trump has ordered a review of the U.S. policy toward Afghanistan and the region at a time when the Afghan forces have failed to fight the Taliban insurgency and Kabul has lost control of about half of the country’s territory. The U.S. review is said to be nearing a conclusion with a possible suggestion on sending addition troops to Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the U.S.-Pakistan relations are also stalemated and this week the United States decided to withhold part of the aid it provides to Pakistan. According to the Pakistani ambassador to the United States, the withheld money is not aid but reimbursement that Washington gives as expenditures that Pakistan bears in the war on terror.
The U.S. accuses Pakistan of allowing safe havens to the Afghan Taliban including the Haqqani network but Islamabad has rejected the assertions, pointing out that the Taliban who control more than 40 percent of the territory do not need any outside safe haven for their insurgency.
Pakistan-Afghanistan relations have suffered severe setbacks recently, posing another challenge to the U.S. conduct of its policy. Both countries trade allegations of harboring militants.
Islamabad has accused Kabul of allowing anti-Pakistan TTP militants to operate from its territory with immunity and also letting India to fuel terrorism in Pakistan from across the Afghan border.
