NEW YORK, Sep 23 (APP): Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Thursday said that Pakistan was in sync with the international community wanting to see a peaceful and stable Afghanistan with no space for terrorist elements to increase their foothold.
The foreign minister, in an interview with The Associated Press, said like the international community, Pakistan also wanted Taliban to ensure “that Afghan soil is never used again against any country.”
“If they live up to those expectations, they would make it easier for themselves, they will get acceptability, which is required for recognition,” Qureshi said, who is currently in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly session.
He said, “At the same time, the international community has to realize: What’s the alternative? What are the options? This is the reality, and can they turn away from this reality?”
He urged the world community to be more realistic and innovative to engage with Taliban as the way that they were being dealt had not worked.
The foreign minister urged the United States, the International Monetary Fund and other countries that have frozen Afghan government funds to immediately release the money so it can be used “for promoting normalcy in Afghanistan.”
He pledged that Pakistan was ready to play a “constructive, positive” role in opening communications channels with the Taliban because it, too, benefits from peace and stability.
He said Taliban were listening, “and they are not insensitive to what is being said by neighbors and the international community.”
Qureshi stressed that the Taliban must make decisions in coming days and weeks that would enhance their acceptability.
“What the international community can do, in my view, is sit together and work out a roadmap,” Qureshi said. “And if they fulfill those expectations, this is what the international community can do to help them stabilize their economy. This is the humanitarian assistance that can be provided. This is how they can help rebuild Afghanistan, reconstruction and so on and so forth.”
He added: “With this roadmap ahead, I think an international engagement can be more productive.”
Qureshi said there were different forums where the international community could work out the best way to approach the situation.
In the meantime, he asserted, things seem to be stabilizing as according to the information received by Pakistan, the law-and-order situation had improved, fighting had stopped and many internally displaced Afghans were going home.
“That’s a positive sign,” Qureshi remarked.
He said Pakistan hasn’t seen a new influx of Afghan refugees — a sensitive issue for Pakistanis.
He said a humanitarian crisis, a foundering economy and workers who return to jobs and school but aren’t getting salaries and don’t have money could cause Afghans to flee across the porous border into Pakistan, which has suffered economically from such arrivals over decades of conflict.
Prescribing patience and realism, Qureshi said as every previous attempt to stabilize Afghanistan had failed, new efforts could not be expected to produce immediate success with the Taliban.
If the United States and its allies “could not convince them or eliminate them in two decades, how will you do it in the next two months or the next two years?” he wondered.
Asked whether he had a prediction of what Afghanistan might be like in six months, Qureshi turned the question back on the interviewer, replying: “Can you guarantee me US behavior over the next six months?”
