ISLAMABAD: Defense Minister of Pakistan Khawaja Asif has declared that negotiations between Pakistan and Afghanistan didn’t bring about any results because of the inflexibility of the Taliban.
In his interview, Asif mentioned that each time the parties were on the verge of signing a deal, the Afghan side dominated by the Taliban would find new ways to stop the progress from going beyond that point.
Khawaja Asif also informed that India is repurposing its humiliations from the past, through the Afghan government and is thus taking advantage of Kabul’s political situation for its own benefits. Besides, he assured that if anyone tried to oppose Pakistan’s viewpoint, they would get a very firm reaction.
“We will take off the eyes that are looking at Islamabad in a wrong way,” he uttered.
Moreover, the Defence Minister said that the Taliban administration is not in total charge of Afghanistan; hence, the Kabul government does not have the power to make the final decisions in the talks. He pointed out that important regional players like Qatar and Turkey were on the same page as Pakistan regarding this issue and had acknowledged from the very beginning that there was hardly any chance to move forward in the talks.
Asif was also of the opinion that the present government in Kabul is one-faction-dominated and, therefore, does not have the trustworthiness required for such confidential talks.
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The negotiations held between Pakistan and Afghanistan in Doha (Qatar) and Istanbul (Turkey) ended in a stalemate and no definitive agreement was reached.
