As the Pakistani delegation was preparing to head home after stalled talks with the Afghan delegation, a ray of hope was rekindled for the resumption of dialogue following a request from the host nations as well as an appeal from the Afghan delegation. Pakistan agreed to give peace another chance. This has led to an interim understanding aimed at preventing the use of Afghan soil for terrorist activities against Pakistan and taking decisive action against Indian-backed militant groups TTP and BLA.
According to the interim agreement all parties reaffirmed that the purpose of the talks was to reinforce the ceasefire originally agreed upon in Doha; Both sides committed to maintaining the ceasefire on the condition that Afghan territory will not be used for terrorist attacks against Pakistan; Afghan Taliban will take clear, verifiable action against TTP and BLA; The next round of talks will be held in Istanbul on November 6 to finalize details and implementation mechanisms and a joint monitoring and verification mechanism will be established to ensure compliance and to impose penalties on any party found violating the agreement.
Looking at the agreed points, it seems that better sense has prevailed, and the outcome of the final round of talks has almost fulfilled Pakistan’s core demand of the Afghan government not allowing the terrorist entities to use its territory for attacks in Pakistan. It is surely a welcome development. It will surely help in tackling terrorism to the benefit of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the regional countries, provided the Afghan Taliban honestly stick to it, unlike their backtracking on the Doha Agreement.
Peace and stability in Afghanistan and the elimination of terrorism mean a win-win situation for Afghanistan and all the regional countries, with enhanced prospects of shared economic prosperity.
The Taliban government must realise that it cannot afford global alienation any more. They owe it to the Afghan people to ensure peace in the country by taking action against the terrorist groups which pose a security threat to the entire region and taking steps to win global support through the fulfilment of the pledges that they have made.
Failure to pursue that course would ultimately harm their own interests and even survival as rulers of Afghanistan. They should take advantage of the sympathies and support of all the regional countries, including Pakistan, who desire a peaceful and stable Afghanistan and are also willing to help in the efforts to rebuild its devastated infrastructure and revive its economy.
The regional countries have expressed this desire through the recently held trilateral talks and quadrilateral talks, as well as urging the international community to continue providing humanitarian assistance to the Taliban government.
Pakistan has always been a well-wisher of Afghanistan. It was among the three countries which extended recognition to the Taliban government when they came into power before 9/11. It supported them in their fight against the Northern Alliance. Strived hard for an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned solution to the conflict in Afghanistan and was also instrumental in facilitating the Doha Agreement between them and the USA. Pakistan has hosted millions of Afghan refugees over the last four decades.
With the return of the Afghan Taliban to power in Afghanistan in 2021, Pakistan justifiably expected them to fulfil their commitment not to allow the terrorist entities to conduct terrorist attacks in Pakistan and other regional countries, which had been affected by terrorism in varying degrees. But regrettably, just the opposite happened. The terrorists, particularly TTP BLA, using the Afghan territory– where they have training camps and bases– continued attacks in Pakistan, and repeated requests from Pakistan were deliberately neglected by the Taliban government, telling Pakistan that TTP was their internal matter. During the last two years, there has been an exponential increase in these attacks due to a renewed nexus between Indian RAW, TTP and BLA under the patronage of the Taliban government.
On top of that, Afghan troops committed unprovoked attacks on Pakistan security check-posts along the Pak-Afghan border. As they say, there is a limit to everything. Pakistan took a decisive action against this provocation, making the Afghan Taliban realise what Pakistan was capable of doing under its new normal policy. A ceasefire for 48 hours was affected on the request of the Afghan government as well as friendly Muslim countries, following which Talks were held at Doha, hosted by Qatar and Turkey, leading to an extension in the ceasefire and the pledge to have further talks at Istanbul. The talks stalled after tenuous negotiations over four days due to the intransigence of the Taliban delegation to give a firm commitment on the core demand of Pakistan, even after agreeing to the final draft, they did not sign the agreement. They did so in the light of instructions from Kabul.
However, thanks to the efforts of the host countries and the realisation by the Taliban government about the seriousness of the situation, the talks were resumed and we have a positive outcome, at least for now, which has reignited hopes for a peaceful settlement of the issue.
Pakistan would not grudge normal diplomatic relations between the Taliban government and India and economic cooperation. The same would be the case with other regional countries. But when those relations descend into the realm of implementation of sinister Indian designs to wage low-intensity war against Pakistan through the Afghan Taliban, there is justifiably zero tolerance. Perhaps it would be pertinent to remind the Taliban that it was India which provided military assistance to the Northern Alliance when they were fighting against them.
The reality is that the Taliban government in Afghanistan is no match for Pakistan militarily, and any confrontation would inflict unfathomable harm on them, in view of the fact that Pakistan would no longer tolerate any terrorist attack from Afghan soil. That is also the new normal as far as India is concerned.
The Taliban will, therefore, have to recalibrate their policies in line with their international obligations as well as pledges made with Pakistan and the regional countries to curb the phenomenon of terrorism. Peace and stability in Afghanistan and the elimination of terrorism mean a win-win situation for Afghanistan and all the regional countries with enhanced prospects of shared economic prosperity. That thinking should guide the future actions of the Taliban government in the domain of their foreign relations.
The writer is a former diplomat and freelance columnist.