Eying Pakistan, India warns against early withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan

America may have had enough, but the U.S. spat with Pakistan over its dubious (or duplicitous) role in the fight against terrorism has India hoping that the withdrawal of allied troops from Afghanistan will be delayed.

Read between the lines of this statement from India's Permanent Representative to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri, and you get the idea India is keen for a delay so that Islamabad's role as peace broker, and the role of the now out of favor Haqqani group, can percolate fully in the U.S. State Department: 

"For security and stabilisation of Afghanistan, it is important to isolate and root out the syndicate of terrorism which includes elements of the Al Qaida, Taliban, Laskar-e-Taiba and other terrorist and extremist groups operating from within and outside Afghanistan's borders…." Puri said, according to the Press Trust of India. "We support further strengthening of the Afghan National Security Forces. We fully support an Afghan-led inclusive and transparent process of reconciliation." 

In other words, now that it looks like Washington and Islamabad are going to patch things up, no matter what the chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staffs says, no deal is better than a Pakistani-brokered deal.

Puri warned against any "hurry" in withdrawing troops from the country, saying such a move should be done keeping in mind the ground realities and not just to meet any deadline. "For peace, stability and security in Afghanistan, it is imperative that the ongoing transition must be linked to the ground realities rather than rigid timetables. This, the international community in its hurry to withdraw from a combat role in Afghanistan, will ignore at its own peril," Puri said.