Istanbul debacle

The Afghan Taliban are squarely to be blamed for the failure of peace talks in Istanbul. Pakistan had demanded the obvious: written guarantees from Kabul that it will act against the terror outfits, especially the TTP, operating from Afghanistan and exterminate them. This demand was in accordance with the 2020 Doha Accord that the Taliban had signed, pledging before the global community that the Afghan soil will not be used to launch terrorist attacks in the neighbourhood. That promise is yet to be fulfilled, and the failure of Taliban 2.0 to expel the terror remnants from Afghanistan is a blot on their face.

Istanbul talks, brokered by Qatar and Turkiye, were an opportunity in disaster to make headway, so that the volatility in Southwest Asia could be addressed. All that was desired was to set up a monitoring mechanism with international observers or representatives from Türkiye and Qatar so as to verify the claims and counter-claims transparently. It is difficult to gauge as to what hindered the Taliban from agreeing to that strategy, given to understand that it would have relieved them of the menace of terrorism and helped assert their lawful authority over the strife-torn country. Thus, Islamabad's stance was on the mark as it said that "cooperation is only possible if it is bilateral, measurable and enforceable, so that efforts to eliminate terrorism can yield tangible results".

It is quite obvious now that Kabul has extra-political designs and is bent upon derailing relations with a benevolent neighbour, Pakistan, for the sake of short-term achievements. That is a myopic approach which will come to the detriment of the Afghan citizens who have been suffering for the last several decades, and long for perpetual peace and security. Afghanistan has to understand that Pakistan's concerns are rooted in security and sovereignty, and not hostility, and all it expects of the Taliban regime is to align itself with international expectations and commitments. Time for Kabul to get introspective at home and rational on the foreign front.