Ties with Pakistan: Afghan govt optimistic over cooperation

FM Zalmai Rassoul says Taliban did not succeed in making a comeback.

ISLAMABAD:

Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul said on Thursday that he is optimistic that Pakistan’s new government is serious about cooperation and confident that the Taliban will not make a comeback.

In an interview with Paris-based international news channel France 24, Rassoul said Kabul was encouraged by recent talks with Islamabad.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai was in Pakistan for two days last week and met with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for the first time since the May election.

“Stability in Pakistan cannot be achieved without stability in Afghanistan. That is something that is final,” Rassoul said.

He added that Kabul was ‘reasonably hopeful’ of ‘much better cooperation’ with the new Pakistan government.

“I think there is recognition in Pakistan today that the country has tremendous economic and security problems, and that these difficulties cannot be resolved without cooperation with Afghanistan in the fight against terrorism,” he said.



Regarding the Taliban, the Afghan foreign minister said, “The Taliban tried their best to make a comeback at the end of 2014 but they did not succeed in that,” adding that “The Taliban have no consideration for the Afghan people because all they do is fight to kill.”

Rassoul said government forces were in control of 80 percent of Afghanistan and that the Taliban controlled ‘only one or two districts’ in Helmand and Kandahar provinces.

“I can assure you there is no way the Taliban can come back in Afghanistan,” he opined.

Blame game

Just days after Afghan President Hamid Karzai paid a two-day state visit to Pakistan, the Afghan spy agency, on Thursday, came up with accusations against Pakistan after authorities claimed they killed two ‘Pakistani nationals’ who tried to attack a Shi’ite mosque in Kabul.

Afghan officials said that at least three civilians were injured in an attack on Imam Hassan Mujtaba Mosque in Kabul city during morning prayers.

“Pakistani intelligence
and the Punjabis are responsible for the miseries of the people of Afghanistan,” the Afghan intelligence said in a Persian language statement received here.

The spy agency, National Directorate of Security (NDS), said the two men were dressed in police uniform and belonged to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).

“There is no doubt that Pakistani intelligence is the enemy of Afghan peace and trying to increase sufferings of the Afghan people,” the statement said. It alleged that the attack was aimed at fanning the fire of sectarianism and religious hatred in Afghanistan.

Afghan authorities released video footage and photograph of the bodies to the media.

Afghan intelligence launched the media attack on Pakistan days after President Karzai appointed a new intelligence chief, Rehmatullah Nabeel, the man Karzai had removed exactly one year ago.

Karzai-Taliban row

President Karzai and Taliban on Thursday accused each other of working for foreign forces, killing the Afghans and defaming Islam. Karzai strongly condemned the Taliban attack that killed a religious scholar Maulavi Noor ul Haq and his two sons in the province of Ghazni on Tuesday.

“The Taliban have been assigned by their foreign masters to defame and tarnish the image of Islam,” a presidential statement said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2013.