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KABUL: A prominent Pashtoon leader calls on the international community to demand a non-interference guarantee from Afghanistan’s neighbors.
Mahmood Khan Achakzai who leads the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP), said that he fully supports the ongoing peace process in Afghanistan, emphasizing on the intra-Afghan peace negotiations in which the government of Afghanistan should be part.
He urged that the intra-Afghan negotiations are a need, suggesting the war parties to agree on essential issues. “Afghanistan will be independent, Afghan territorial integrity need to be guaranteed and a government should be formed in Afghanistan based on the Afghans’ votes.”
The Pashtoon political leader added that the US special envoy for Afghan peace Zalmay Khalilzad was well aware about the country’s issues, hoping his efforts on the peace program succeed. “As an Afghan-Amercain, Khalilzad needs to pay attention to every issue,” Achakzai said.
He criticized the US for leaving Afghans alone after the withdrawal of the Soviet troops in the 1980s, asking Washington to play its important role in the reconstruction of Afghan structures.
“NATO, the United Sates and other world countries have to rebuild Afghanistan for us, they should build our national army,” Achakzai said in an interview with Radio Mashal in Peshawar.
He asked the international community not to let Afghan neighbors meddle in its affairs. “Afghanistan is not facing any threat from the world, but its neighbors should guarantee during the peace negotiations that they will not interfere in its internal affairs. The world should tell Afghanistan’s neighbors that they would be ruined if they cross Afghan borders.”
Achakzai praised China for having a friendly historical relation with Afghanistan, asking other neighboring states to play positive roles regarding Kabul just like Beijing.
He said that Pashtoons as a nation should have held an international conference through which the international community would receive a message that Afghans are peace-loving people, not terrorists, as they have already proved.
