Sir — This refers to the article, “Kabul back to its tried and tested friend, India” (November 11) by Ashok K Mehta. Duress and incentives to Pakistan, as imagined by the writer, do not work. The US pressured Pakistan to join its fight against the Taliban and Pakistan played a duplicitous game of running with the Taliban/Haqqani network hares while hunting with the American hounds. The US has accepted Pakistan’s duplicity.
The Iran-Afghanistan-India alliance highlighted by Mr Mehta will not materialise because Iran is not going to offend Pakistan or China. Eventually, the new American President in 2017 will be forced to station US troops in Afghanistan for a long time to prevent the return of the Taliban.