By Special Correspondent
Islamabad: The US envoy, trying to end Afghanistan’s war, expressed his hope Wednesday that the Kabul government will be able to negotiate a side agreement with Pakistan, whose long-standing Taliban support has been checked.
The Taliban and Afghan Governments have opened slow peace talks in Qatar as the United States begins withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan to end its longest-ever war.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the US leader on Afghanistan, said that Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan and his strong military chief, General Qamer Javed Bajwa, were “helpful” in diplomacy.
“We are seeking an agreement between Afghanistan and Pakistan as an adjunct to internal peace,” Khalilzad told a forum at the University of Chicago’s Pearson Institute by video from Doha.
Both countries would “agree that their territory will not be allowed to be used against the other by extremist groups or groups that would undermine the security of the other,” he said.
Pakistan greeted the February 29 agreement between the United States and the Taliban, in which Washington announced that it would “facilitate talks” between Kabul and Islamabad.
Critics, particularly in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s historic rival India, see Islamabad as playing both sides and say that it’s military and intelligence establishment has always embraced Taliban violence as a way to control its neighbours.
But Khalilzad, who visited Islamabad last month, said he saw economic benefits for Pakistan, which suffers from severe power shortages and could import power from electricity-rich Central Asia if the Afghan government and the Taliban reached an agreement.
“There are economic reasons that would be transformative for the region should peace in Afghanistan come,” Khalilzad said.
Khalilzad’s upbeat sound, which has sought to ensure that all main players support Afghan peace, comes after years of on-going tensions between the United States and Pakistan’s Cold War ally.
President Donald Trump cut $300 million in US security assistance to Pakistan in 2018, saying he failed to combat the extremists.
US hoping for Pakistan, Afghanistan side agreement
