Pakistani and Afghan negotiators have to come to the table with a Plan B to break the endless cycle of bombings and retaliatory strikes.

Just before midnight on 28 June, Pakistani jets crossed into eastern Afghanistan and struck targets in Paktia, Paktika and Kunar provinces. The United Nations mission in Kabul confirmed that at least 28 civilians were killed and 49 injured, women and children among them. The deadliest strike hit a home in Paktia’s Chamkani district, where at least 22 people died in their sleep.

Islamabad told a different story. Its information minister said security forces had destroyed militant hideouts and killed 29 fighters, in retaliation for an assault on a paramilitary headquarters in Karachi days earlier. Both versions can be partly true at once, and that is the heart of the problem.

The strikes shattered barely a month of relative calm after what Pakistani officials had themselves described as an open war with their neighbour. Hundreds of people have died in cross-border fighting since February, and repeated rounds of talks have failed to produce a ceasefire that holds. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, China, Turkey and the United Nations have all urged restraint or hosted negotiations. Every effort has been overtaken by the next attack.

The uncomfortable lesson is that diplomacy is not collapsing for want of meetings, mediators or communiques. It is collapsing because the two governments arrive at every table wanting things the other cannot give.

Pakistan’s demand is security. It........

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