What the International Community is expecting from Kabul in the post US led Nato troops withdrawal scenario? Afghanistan is a hot topic for everyone, particularly, the regional players or countries next to the war-ravaged country. A stable, peaceful and sovereign country to have a more representative government or to say, a broad-based ‘all-inclusive-government’ in place. This is a positive step to engage the interim Taliban government at multilateral regional as well as other international fora diplomatically to avoid the replay of late 1990s era that had posed a serious threat to the regional and international peace and security.
There is a diplomatic push to have a peaceful and stable government, fully backed and well-represented by all the ethno-political groups of the country.
In the transition period, the Taliban is defending its interim government as a legitimate and represented by all the ethnic groups, but the world sees it otherwise. The Taliban is arguing that it is purely the internal matter of the Afghans to decide how to run the government, and no one should dictate us on this issue.
The world is expecting from the Taliban controlled Kabul government to fulfil its obligations, what it had pledged in signing the peace deal, or known as Doha Peace Deal 2020, to have inter-Afghans dialogue for the future political set up, eliminate terrorism and would not allow any terrorist group to use its soil against the US, Nato and other countries, and eradicate drug trafficking. However, reports, emanating from Afghanistan and concerns, expressed by the international community and neighbors, reflect the opposite side of the story. The UN and its organizations are warning the Taliban government that terrorist outfits are regrouping in the remote parts of the country, and they should take action against them.
Pakistan and the Taliban Interim government led Afghanistan have entered into a bitter diplomatic row as the bilateral relations were seen at the lowest in the recent months as Pakistan has claimed that the terrorists have been using Afghan soil to carry out terrorist attacks on the Pakistani side of the Afghan border, which the Afghan Taliban rejected.
In the year under review, some major terrorist attacks inside Pakistan were allegedly linked to Afghanistan as Pakistani security officials claimed to have found links of some Afghan nationals as involved in the attacks, like the January 30 deadly attack on a mosque in the Peshawar Police Line, a coordinated attack on the Frontier Corps Fort in the Zhob, Baluchistan in July, the cross border attacks on the border posts in the remote Chitral district and skirmishes at the border post near the main crossing point Torkham at the Afghan border between the forces of the two countries.
The US special representative for Afghanistan Tom West has also termed the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan as a serious threat to the regional peace and security. Islamabad has been repeatedly asking Kabul to stop this cross border terrorist attacks, and warned if it failed to take action, then Pakistan could act on its own.
Despite this tension, both sides continued using diplomatic channels to normalize the ties. Pakistan special envoy on Afghanistan has visited Kabul and met with the senior officials of the interim Taliban government to discuss this issue. China is also playing a role to help resolve the issue politically, and a trilateral meeting among the Pakistan, Afghan and China was held on the sideline of the regional diplomatic forum –Moscow Format- fifth meeting in the Kazan city of republic of Tatarstan, a semi-autonomous region of Russia.
In the latest meeting of the Moscow Format in Kazan, Russia, on September 29, three issues were discussed in details by the special envoys of the 10 regional countries including Russia as the host, Pakistan, China, Iran, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Envoys of the Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and Turkey have also participated in the meeting as observers on special invitation. Afghan delegation was led by the acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi. The Taliban delegation was not invited to participate in the November 2022 meeting.
In a joint statement at the end of the conference, the special envoys and officials, though lauded the steps taken by the interim Taliban government to fight the ISIS or its local branch of Islamic State of Khorasan Province effectively in the difficult security situation.
According to the joint statement, issued by the ministry of foreign affairs of Russia, “The parties noted with concern the difficult security situation in Afghanistan due to the intensification of the activities of terrorist groups, primarily ISIS.”
The participants appreciated the serious efforts of the Taliban against the ISIS, but call upon Kabul to take effective measures to dismantle, eliminate and prevent all kinds of the terrorist groups based in Afghanistan to avoid the country becoming a hotspot for the spreading the terrorism in the region.
The Afghan Taliban has effectively taken steps to control the poppy cultivation, but it is yet to completely eradicate all sorts of drug trafficking. Some reports revealed that ‘meth crystal’ or ice is being smuggled from Afghanistan that is a serious threat to rising numbers of the drug addicts.
However, there is no progress on the issue of inclusive government and the forum regretted that no practical steps have been taken on the subject. “There should be a truly inclusive government to reflect the representation of the all the ethno groups,” according to the statement. There is some sort of representation to ethnic groups, but not as needed.
Acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told the conference that Afghanistan has suffered a lot and is facing internal challenges, but we have been playing our role as a peaceful nation, and there should be no threat to the region. The inclusive government is still a tricky issue, and Muttaqi has categorically stated that we would not follow any foreign model of government as it had failed in the past.
Though, it is a difficult task to bring Afghanistan back to normalcy, and mainstreaming it to play its significant role. A stable Afghanistan could interconnect the South and Central Asian regions, if there is lasting peace.
The US and developed world should also focus on the rebuilding of the countries, worst hit by the war and conflicts for decades. However, the Taliban should also need to show some sort of flexibility and fulfil its obligations to have stability in the region.
