Sartaj calls for non-interference in Afghanistan

LONDON: Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has said that the government will use the option of force against the Taliban groups that refuse to engage in dialogue with the government and continue to use violence against the state of Pakistan.
Speaking at the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) here on “Post 2014 Transition in Afghanistan: Pakistan’s Perspectives on Regional Security and Stability”, Aziz told the audience that dialogue with the Taliban is a complex issue but the government was determined to establish its writ in the North Waziristan Agency and would not like the Pakistani Taliban factions to join hands with the Afghan Taliban after the 2014 withdrawal of the allied forces, led by America.
“These talks are subject to ceasefire, this policy will continue. The purpose is to establish the writ of the state which we hope to achieve through talks but action will be taken if any of the 40-50 groups of militants engage in violence,” he said.
Aziz, who is on an official visit to UK for review of the Enhanced Strategic Dialogue (ESD) between Pakistan and UK, said that the government had initiated dialogue with the Taliban after developing national “political consensus” on it. He said that reports about Pakistan discussing arms supply to Syrian rebels were fictitious and baseless.
Answering questions, Aziz stressed that Pakistan was not supporting Taliban in Afghanistan and had told Hamid Karzai that it not be in Pakistan’s interest if Taliban came into power in Afghanistan by use of force. He said Pakistan stood against “interference” in Afghanistan from any side and believed that lots of Afghanistan’s current problems emanate from the interference of foreign countries, starting from the USSR’s invasions of the country.
Sartaj Aziz told the audience that Pakistan shared common strategic interests with Afghanistan and the future of the two countries are linked. He said Pakistan was today suffering due to the issues of weapons, refugees and militancy because of the instability and war in Afghanistan. He said the western powers deserted Afghanistan and Pakistan after the exit of the Russian troops but the “handling of the fallout has been incalculable for Pakistan”.
“Pakistan wants a stable Afghanistan which is critical for us. We want to enhance regional cooperation. Afghanistan is passing through a defining moment and it’s a new beginning fraught with challenges.”
He said Pakistan had released a number of high profile Taliban prisoners to help the Afghan reconciliation process but stressed that Pakistan doesn’t have the “key” and sometime unrealistic “high expectations are attached to us” but “Afghanistan needs as Afghan-led solution.”
He called on all stakeholders in Afghanistan to develop a regional consensus and agree that no proxy wars should be allowed there.Speaking about the post-9/11 military intervention by the US, Aziz said this has become the “longest war” in American history and the results are “mixed at best”.
He added: “The clearest lesson that can be drawn from three decades of conflict and turmoil in Afghanistan is that the security and future prosperity of the two countries remain inter-linked. The impact of the crises in Afghanistan and their spill-over into Pakistan continues to be formidable. The price paid by Pakistan in handling the fall-out of the Afghan situation has been incalculable, both in blood and treasure.”
Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, Senior Fellow for South Asia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told The News: “In his first major address in the UK, Sartaj Aziz usefully went beyond the usual diplomatic nicety of supporting “sustainable peace in Afghanistan” by elaborating a series of ‘preventive’ and ‘pro-active’ measures that Pakistan and other countries could be practically be involved in, including a regional consensus on non-interference and a comprehensive reconciliation process among all the stakeholders”.