Afghanistan Times
Related Articles
Afghanistan plans to take Pakistan to the UN security council over its continuing support to the Taliban, which Kabul says is destabilizing their country. Hekmat Khalil Karzai, deputy foreign minister told TOI in an exclusive chat, that after the deadly Taliban attack in Kabul last week, the Ghani government is exploring the UNSC option.
“The president raised this issue on Monday. It’s been discussed in our government. It’s one of the issues we are exploring. If the security dynamics don’t improve that is something we are going to explore and bring to our international friends.”
In his conversation with foreign secretary S Jaishankar, Karzai asked India to provide some more attack helicopters during this current fighting season. “One of the key things we discussed was our list of priorities. I asked him to help Afghanistan, now is the critical time for India to start delivering.” Russia, he said, had just supplied 10,000 AK-47s and ammunition. “We have requested for more support.”
The most important consequence of the Kabul attack has been a decision by the Afghan government to engage the Taliban, Daesh and Haqqani network militarily is a significant one. It means the virtual end of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG, including US, Pakistan, China and Afghanistan), which was set up to get Pakistan to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table.
But Pakistan is the real target of Afghanistan because they believe all Taliban/Haqqani network attacks are carried out with Pakistan’s support. Karzai said, “The Pakistan PM’s foreign policy adviser, Sartaj Aziz went to Washington recently and in front of the entire world he said the Taliban live among them. They receive treatment in their medical facilities; there is a vast support infrastructure, logistical infrastructure, all of that exists in Pakistan. What we are asking now is for Pakistan to deal with that infrastructure. They should take action.”
“You tell us you are not able to bring the Taliban to the table. That’s fine. Your influence with them may have reduced, but you have the ability to take action in your house. Deal with the sanctuaries you have established, deal with us as a sovereign state, and most important, act as a responsible state.”
Last week, US state department too added its voice, with the spokesperson stating for the record, “We have consistently expressed our concerns at that the highest level of the government of Pakistan about their continued tolerance for Afghan Taliban groups, such as the Haqqani network, operating from Pakistani soil.”
The Afghan presidential spokesman was blunter after the Kabul attack which was claimed by the Haqqani network. “Any attack the Haqqani group conducts is not possible without Pakistan’s help and this has been repeatedly proven in the last 14 years,” presidential spokesman, Dawa Khan Meenapal, was quoted as saying. The “roadmap” created by the QCG involved two things, Karzai said, that the Taliban had to be brought to the table. “But, if we couldn’t bring Taliban to the table, all four countries would be responsible for taking action against them. So now we are holding everyone to that second part of the commitment. As I told the Heart of Asia conference here today, we expect the four countries to take action against the Taliban.” (Times of India)
