Pakistan calls on the world to “engage” with the Taliban government | Asia News

Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan’s national security adviser called on the world to “engage” with the Taliban’s interim government in Afghanistan or risk a return to the instability that characterized the group’s last era in power three years ago. decades.

In a speech to foreign media in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, Moeed Yusuf on Wednesday urged the international community not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

“We are trying to make the world understand the importance of not redoing the mistakes of the past,” he said.

“For us, it is imperative to seek peace and stability in Afghanistan, that is what we are focusing on.”

Yusuf’s comments come as world powers debate whether and under what conditions to recognize Kabul’s new Taliban-dominated government, which swept through Afghanistan in a lightning offensive last month. The group took control of the capital, Kabul, on August 15 as former President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

Pakistan, Afghanistan’s southeastern neighbor, has repeatedly called on world powers to engage with the new government and immediately provide humanitarian and other assistance to avert impending economic collapse.

On Monday, several countries pledged more than $ 1.1 billion in food aid at a United Nations conference to address the immediate problems of poverty and hunger in Afghanistan. About $ 10 billion in Afghan central bank reserves, however, remain frozen in banks abroad, notably with the US Federal Reserve.

Stay engaged

Yusuf called on world powers to engage with the Taliban rather than freezing ties with the government led by the armed group, which has waged a bloody 20-year battle against US and NATO occupying forces which killed tens of thousands of Afghan civilians and security forces.

“By engaging, you’re basically saying we’re going to constructively try to look at how to help Afghanistan for the sake of the average Afghan,” Yusuf said.

When asked if there were any human rights issues under a Taliban government, the Pakistani national security adviser said that international powers could only exert pressure on these issues if they did. engaged with the country.

People walk with their belongings into Pakistan at the Friendship Gate crossing point in the Pakistani-Afghan border town of Chaman, Pakistan, September 6, 2021 [File: Abdul Khaliq Achakzai/Reuters]

“If the Taliban have made it clear, what they have done, that they want to stay engaged with the world … and if they have made it clear that the engagement will bring legitimacy and assistance, it is not Pakistan that will provide that, ”he said.

“We can’t provide that legitimacy, it’s the West. And that is the leverage effect. But if you engage constructively, that conversation can happen.

He also said engagement with the government would help address global security concerns. The Taliban have in the past, and in the landmark deal with the United States in February 2020, declared that Afghan soil would not be allowed to be used against foreign countries.

Yusuf said on Wednesday that Pakistan had held talks with Taliban leaders over security concerns, in particular with the Pakistani Taliban armed group which has many fighters based in eastern Afghanistan.

“We have made it clear that we cannot accept any terrorism from Afghan soil, and frankly the very clear answer is that there is absolutely no point in letting this happen, and now the goal is again border management, ensuring that these [fighters] are not allowed to function as they do, ”he said.

Pakistan has seen an increase in attacks on security forces in the country’s northwest, in districts close to the Afghan border, since the Taliban seized power last month.

Humanitarian crisis

Yusuf also warned that immediate humanitarian aid would not meet the long-term viability of the Afghan economy and that world powers must do more to ensure that the country – heavily dependent on foreign aid for decades – does not not sink into an economic crisis.

“Humanitarian aid is only a stopgap to ensure that there is no immediate humanitarian crisis. It does not equate to governance, institutional and economic support, ”he said.

Afghan Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Tuesday also called on international donors to resume foreign aid.

A displaced Afghan child plays at a camp for internally displaced people in Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday, September 13, 2021 [Bernat Armangue/AP Photo]

“Afghanistan is a country affected by war and it needs the help of the international community in different sectors, including education, health and development,” Muttaqi told reporters in Kabul.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan is due to travel to Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe on Thursday to attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit at which the situation in Afghanistan is expected to feature prominently.

Yusuf said Khan would urge world powers in the SCO, which includes Russia, China, India and several Central Asian states, to “engage” with the Taliban government in Afghanistan.