Thread by @nabeelaq

US-Afghan relations have gone through turbulent phases starting from the early 1950s.

Now, the latest peace talks signal a hopeful conclusion by 2021.
Here's a comprehensive look at all that has happened in the last 70 years & how Pakistan's role has changed over time.

2. As the cold war began b/w the Soviet Union & US, Afghanistan became important.

US-Afghanistan contact increased during the Cuban Revolution b/w 1953 & 1959. The Soviet Union was supporting Cuba's Fidel Castro & the US was focusing on Afghanistan for its strategic purposes.

3. The focus was to counter the spread of communism into South Asia & the Persian Gulf.

In 1953, Richard Nixon (US VP at the time) made an official diplomatic visit to Kabul.

In 1958, PM Daoud Khan became the 1st Afghan to speak before the United States Congress in Washington

4. PM Daoud focused on many issues, but most significantly, highlighted the importance of US-Afghan relations.

He also met with President Dwight Eisenhower, signed a cultural exchange agreement, & assured personal relations with VP Nixon.

These were positive steps.

5. Then President Eisenhower made a state visit to Afghanistan in December 1959. It is then the US felt confident that Afghanistan was safe from becoming a Soviet satellite state. From the 1950s to 1979, US foreign assistance provided Afghanistan with more than $500M in aid.

6. This aid included loans, grants, & surplus agricultural commodities to develop transportation facilities,⬆️agricultural production, expand the educational system & improve govt. administration.

Then in 1963, King Zahir Shah of Afghanistan visited the US & met John F. Kennedy

7. The Soviets began to sense that the US was turning Afghanistan into a satellite state, but in 1965 the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) was established.

By the 1970s, numerous US teachers, engineers, doctors, diplomats had travelled & lived in Afghanistan.

8. In 1973, Daoud Khan overthrew the monarchy of King Zahir Shah with the help of PDPA & established the first republic of Afghanistan.

He was convinced that with military support from the USSR he could take control of Pashtun lands in northwest Pakistan.

@GovernmentRF

9. However, President Daoud Khan became sceptical as the Soviets tried to dictate Afghanistan's foreign policy, & relations between the two countries deteriorated.

Then began The Saur Revolution & the increasing conflict on the Afghan political fronts.

10. The same PDPA that first helped President Daoud now stood against him.

The revolution resulted in the creation of a govt. with Nur Muhammad Taraki as President & would be the precursor to the 1979 Soviet intervention & the 1979–89 Soviet-Afghan War against the Mujahideen.

11. In 1979, after American Ambassador Adolph Dubs was murdered in Kabul, the US reduced bilateral assistance & terminated a small military training program.

All remaining assistance agreements were ended after the Soviet-Afghan War.

12. The Soviet-Afghan War was a conflict where the 'mujahideen' & smaller Maoist groups fought a 9-year guerrilla war against the Soviet Army & Afghanistan govt. throughout the 1980s. It was fought mostly in the Afghan countryside, weakening & damaging the economy & land heavily.

13. In this time, b/w 562,000 & 2,000,000 civilians were killed & millions of Afghans became refugees in Pakistan & Iran.
While Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, the US provided about $3B in military & economic assistance to the mujahideen on the Pakistani side of the Durand Line.

14. The time between 1970-90 saw the most severe Soviet-Afghan confrontation. The socialist bloc (PDPA) headed by USSR, carried out a policy that was ideologically the opposite of Islamabad’s.
The Socialist & Islamist ideology collided on the Afghan-Pakistani frontiers.

15. Official relations b/w the countries were interrupted & indirect negotiations took place. Pakistan's allies (US, Saudi Arabia & China) played a role.

The subversive war against PDPA & the grouping of Islamist Mujahideen in Pakistan was deemed successful after USSR collapsed.

16. #Pakistan financially, diplomatically, & militarily supported the Afghan mujahideen & hosted more than 5M Afghans after this.

Then began the era that will establish the Taliban govt. after a four year Civil War from 1992-1996.
@USEmbassyKabul

17. On October 15, 1999, The United Nations Security Council created an 'al-Qaeda & Taliban Sanctions Committee', which declared the groups as terrorist entities and imposed sanctions on their funding, travel, and arms shipments.

@UN @UN_News_Centre

18. Taliban came into existence after the Afghanistan Civil War & provided Al-Qaeda with a safe zone for operations.

Then in 2001 Ahmad Shah Massoud, commander of the Northern Alliance (anti-Taliban coalition), was assassinated by al-Qaeda, weakening the anti-Taliban resistance

19. The ill-fated 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center & the Pentagon took away close to 3000 lives & changed Afghanistan's positioning forever.

On Sept.18, 2001, a joint resolution signed into law by President George Bush authorized the use of force against the attackers.

20. This joint resolution is what was cited by the Bush administration as a legal rationale to take drastic measures to combat terrorism, invade Afghanistan, eavesdrop on US citizens without a court order, and standing up the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

@EmbaCubaUS

21. Pakistan initially sided with the US in the war on terror & allowed @NATO supplies to cross into Afghanistan. This decision by President @P_Musharraf ended up damaging the country in irrecoverable ways. The after-effects of which are visible even now & will be for many years.

22. Between 2005 & 2013, more than 80,000 #Pakistanis have been killed in this war against terror, out of which close to 50,000 were innocent civilians.

Moreover, the direct & indirect economic costs of terrorism from 2000–2010 amounts to $68B.

23. In 2018, @dawn_com reported a total loss of $126.79B to the Pakistani economy due to war on terror.

In 2001, the US with British support, began a bombing campaign against Taliban forces. Canada, Australia, Germany, and France pledged future support.

24. At the end of Dec. 2001, Bin Laden escaped despite a targeted operation on the Tora Bora caves.

@UN invited major Afghan factions to a conference in Germany. On Dec 5, 2001, the factions signed the Bonn Agreement, endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 1383.

25. This agreement made Hamid Karzai as interim administration head (elected president in 2004), & created an international peacekeeping force to maintain security in Kabul.

In Dec. 2001, the Taliban regime came to an end, while al-Qaeda continued to hide in the mountains.

26. After a major ground assault in March 2002, President George Bush called for the reconstruction of Afghanistan in April 2002.

From 2001-2009, $38B were appropriated for reconstruction assistance & humanitarian purposes by the US.

@GWBLibrary

27. President @BarackObama came into power & sent 17,000 more troops to the war zone. As of Jan. 2009, there were 37,000 troops in Afghanistan. By Aug. 2009, this number becomes b/w 60,000-68,000.

The new strategy for war links Pakistan's stability to success in #Afghanistan.

28. Pak Army has conducted at least 5 major & multiple minor operations so far:

Operations Enduring Freedom (2001-2002), Al Mizan (2002–2006), Zalzala (2008), Sher Dil, Rah-e-Haq, & Rah-e-Rast (2007–2009) & Rah-e-Nijat (2009–10).

By 2009 end, South Waziristan had 428,000 IDPs

29. In May 2011, Osama Bin Laden was killed by the US forces.

A plan to withdraw 33,000 troops by mid-2012 was put in place & around 70,000 troops were scheduled to stay till 2014.

Obama then announced that the US is holding preliminary peace talks with the Taliban leadership

30. In Jan 2012, Taliban agreed to open an office in Qatar, but 2 months later withdrew, accusing Washington of going back on promises towards a prisoner swap.

Pakistan agreed unanimously on Sept 9, 2013, to negotiate with the militants as the first option to counter terrorism.

31. After Operation Zarb-e-Azb, a sharp decline in terrorism was observed in #Pakistan. According to the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), the largest number of terrorist attacks happened in 2010.

Post 2014, terrorist attacks in Pakistan have significantly declined.

32. In 2013, Afghan forces took responsibility nationwide as @NATO handed over control of the remaining 95 districts. The handover occurred on the same day as the announcement of Taliban & US officials resuming talks in Doha.

US troops currently remain to train Afghan forces.

33. In Apr 2017, the US dropped its most powerful non-nuclear bomb ('mother of all bombs') on suspected Islamic State militants in Nangarhar Province.

President @realDonaldTrump not only pressed for combat but also said that political settlement with the Taliban is far off.

34. In Feb 2019, negotiations b/w US & the Taliban soared, but in Sept 2019 President @realDonaldTrump suddenly broke off peace talks. This happened after US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said that an agreement had been reached 'in principle'.

@US4AfghanPeace @KarzaiH

35. PM @ImranKhanPTI & General Qamar Javed Bajwa's role in facilitating the start of Afghanistan Peace Negotiations in Doha were of critical importance & highly appreciated by Ambassador @realZalmayMK.

Finally, in Feb 2020 the US -Taliban signed a peace deal in Doha.

36. Prior to this, @ImranKhanPTI had been voicing his concern on Pakistan's position in this war since the start.

He was against deploying soldiers to fight on behalf of the US & had warned of a serious psychological impact on the civilians & a staggering blow to the economy.

37. @ImranKhanPTI's push to ‘negotiate’ with the Taliban labelled him as 'Taliban Khan' in 2013 & put him in a negative light. Although, it was his far-sightedness that eventually got everyone on the same table.

Pakistan has suffered an unquantifiable loss since 2001.

38. The current Pakistani leadership has played a major role in persuading the Taliban to 'negotiate' & sign an agreement with the US in Feb 2020 that led towards the intra-Afghan negotiations in Doha.

This will, hopefully, be the start of a peaceful chapter.
Pakistan Zindabad!