Relations between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan have been warming up recently. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks at the presidential palace in Kabul on July 15, 2018. Photo: Anadolu Agency/Haroon Sabawoon
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks at the presidential palace in Kabul in July 2018. Photo: AFP / Anadolu / Haroon Sabawoon

A planned meeting between the Taliban and the Pakistani leadership has been cancelled following a complaint by the Afghan government to the United Nations about their neighbor interfering in Afghan affairs.

A representative of President Ashraf Ghani’s government at the United Nations sent a letter to the UN Security Council last Friday, saying an invitation for the Taliban to meet the Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was a “violation of the national sovereignty of Afghanistan”.

The letter signed by Nazifullah Salarzai, Deputy Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the UN, who noted that “engagements, which are taking place under the pretext of support for peace efforts in Afghanistan, are void of any degree of coordination and consultation with the Government of Afghanistan”.

Salarzai confirmed the authenticity of a copy of the letter that has been circulating online.

The reports of the meeting, which were confirmed by the Taliban, sparked anger among Afghan people and officials. Afghanistan has long accused Pakistan of not only supporting the Taliban insurgency but also providing safe havens to terror groups that work against its national interest.

The letter read: “This initiative is a source of deep regret and concern to the people and Government of Afghanistan as it amounts to the official recognition and legitimization of an armed group that poses a serious threat to security and stability of Afghanistan,” reflecting a popular opinion within the country.

Relations strained over ‘lack of action on terrorists’

Sibghat Ahmadi, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul, also informed local media that the letter was authentic.

“Yes, we have lodged a complaint. There are UN sanctions against members of the Taliban delegation which does not allow them to travel. It is a clear violation of the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, which is a red-line for us,” he said.

Relations between the two countries have been strained in the last few years, after persistent demands from Kabul for Islamabad to take tangible action against terror groups operating on its territory.

The latest saga is hardly surprising. The Trump administration has had special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad involved in talks with the Taliban in recent months to try to set the stage for a potential peace negotiation to end the 18-year-old war in Afghanistan. But the Afghan government has been left out of several rounds of talks, largely because the Taliban refused to talk to them at this stage.

However, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has continued to reach out to the parties involved and pushed international stakeholders for an Afghan-owned and led peace process.

On Monday, in a meeting with Mr Khalilzad, President Ghani urged the Taliban and Pakistan to be open about their relations. “The Taliban should clarify their ties with Pakistan, terrorist groups, and the criminal economy,” he said.

‘Can’t travel’

Later, the Taliban called off their meeting with Pakistani officials and said their leaders were unable to travel because they were blacklisted by the UN.

The insurgent group had previously said they intended to discuss “Pakistan-Afghan relations and issues pertaining to Afghan refugees and Afghan businessmen”, attempting to portray themselves as representing Afghan interests.

“The Islamic Emirate had arranged for their representatives to participate but unfortunately, most members of the negotiations team were unable to travel due to the US and UN blacklist and the meeting was postponed,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said.

Many Afghans felt this excuse was “laughable”, considering the UN blacklist did not stop the Taliban leaders from travelling to Moscow, the United Arab Emirates or Iran for similar meetings over the past few months.

“The matter of Taliban not being able to travel to Pakistan due to UN sanctions is a laughable ruse. Having traveled out of Pakistan and far-off destinations of the world, the Taliban certainly don’t need UN permission for a meeting at home,” former Afghan deputy foreign minister Jawed Ludin said.

He noted the long-held suspicion among Afghans that Pakistan was providing a base for many Taliban leaders.

Spozmai Stanikzai, a former diplomat and student of international relations, said: “It’s a psychological war. In my view, they just want to show the US and political opposition groups in Afghanistan that the Afghan government is the main obstacle in the peace process. Otherwise, they are a rickshaw ride away from meeting Imran Khan.

“[The] ‘Quetta Shora’ in Pakistan doesn’t need a visa or tickets to meet Imran Khan. They get instructions from Pakistan. After all the international pressure on Pakistan, I am sure they didn’t want to meet with the Taliban – a known terrorist group – days after attacks in Pulwana and Zahedan.”

Join the Conversation

1152 Comments

  4. I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest but your blogs really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site to come back later. Many thanks

  5. Hey! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any problems with hackers? My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing a few months of hard work due to no data backup. Do you have any solutions to prevent hackers?

  7. I will immediately grab your rss as I can’t find your email subscription link or e-newsletter service. Do you have any? Kindly let me know in order that I could subscribe. Thanks.

  8. Hello, i believe that i noticed you visited my weblog thus i came to “return the choose”.I am trying to in finding issues to enhance my website!I suppose its ok to use some of your concepts!!

  10. Thank you for sharing excellent informations. Your website is very cool. I’m impressed by the details that you’ve on this web site. It reveals how nicely you understand this subject. Bookmarked this web page, will come back for more articles. You, my friend, ROCK! I found simply the info I already searched everywhere and simply couldn’t come across. What a great web-site.

  11. I’m impressed, I must say. Actually hardly ever do I encounter a weblog that’s both educative and entertaining, and let me inform you, you have hit the nail on the head. Your idea is excellent; the issue is something that not enough persons are speaking intelligently about. I am very completely satisfied that I stumbled throughout this in my search for something relating to this.

  12. An impressive share, I just given this onto a colleague who was doing a little analysis on this. And he in fact bought me breakfast because I found it for him.. smile. So let me reword that: Thnx for the treat! But yeah Thnkx for spending the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love reading more on this topic. If possible, as you become expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more details? It is highly helpful for me. Big thumb up for this blog post!

  13. My partner and I stumbled over here from a different web page and thought I might as well check things out. I like what I see so now i’m following you. Look forward to exploring your web page again.

  16. The core of your writing whilst sounding agreeable at first, did not settle properly with me personally after some time. Someplace within the sentences you actually were able to make me a believer unfortunately just for a very short while. I nevertheless have a problem with your leaps in logic and you would do nicely to fill in those breaks. In the event that you can accomplish that, I would certainly be fascinated.

  19. certainly like your web-site but you need to check the spelling on several of your posts. Several of them are rife with spelling problems and I find it very bothersome to tell the truth nevertheless I will certainly come back again.