Neighbours gather in Tehran: ‘Afghan govt should fulfil commitments made with global community’

ISLAMABAD: A clear and strong message has been sent to the Taliban government in Afghanistan that they should fulfil their commitments made with the international community.

The Afghan territory will not pose any threats to the neighbouring countries, besides it will not be used by criminal, terrorist and separatist groups. In this regard, Kabul should cut ties with all terrorist groups and eliminate them in a decisive manner.

The message was sent through a joint statement at the conclusion of the meeting of foreign ministers of Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries, including Russia, held in Tehran on Wednesday. The third round of the meeting will be held in China in 2022. Pakistan was represented by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Special Representative for Afghanistan Ambassador Muhammad Sadiq and Pakistan’s Ambassador to Tehran Rahim Hayat Qureshi and other senior officials. The foreign ministers of neighbuoring countries of Afghanistan, included Iran, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Russia.

Afghanistan was not invited to the meeting, where the UN secretary seneral sent a video message.The declaration in the joint statement pointed out that the neighbouring countries supported a durable and realistic settlement of differences through dialogue and negotiations among the relevant parties for achieving national reconciliation, lasting political solution and formation of an inclusive government.

The foreign ministers also called on the relevant Afghan parties to take a friendly approach toward neighboring countries and respect recognised universally-accepted principles of the international law and fundamental human rights and protect the safety and legitimate rights of foreign nationals and institutions in Afghanistan.

All the foreign ministers agreed that the countries primarily responsible for the difficulties in Afghanistan should earnestly deliver on their commitment, and provide Afghanistan with urgently-needed economic, livelihood and humanitarian assistance to help realize a stable transition of the situation in Afghanistan.

It called on the relevant Afghan parties to implement modest and prudent internal and external policies, return to the normal order of the society as soon as possible, realise the effective operation of government agencies, provide basic public services to people, take actions to improve people’s livelihood and protect the fundamental rights of ethnic groups, women and children in Afghanistan.

Some of the other issues that were of importance for the various Afghan parties related to confront various threats and challenges, including terrorism, drug smuggling and human trafficking, crackdown on organised crime and other criminal acts originating from Afghanistan and taking into consideration the terrorism threats and counterterrorism effectiveness, discuss through bilateral or multilateral channels the possibility of restarting counter-terrorism cooperation with Afghanistan in due course.

The international community, as well as the relevant Afghan parties, were asked to address the root causes of forced displacement in Afghanistan to avoid any destabilising activity that would deteriorate the situation and cooperate for a permanent solution for the protracted situation of Afghan refugees.

The international community and donor countries were asked to provide continued, adequate and proportionate financial support to the host countries of Afghan refugees, especially Iran and Pakistan and other neighbouring countries of Afghanistan;

The international community was asked to provide Afghanistan with more urgent humanitarian assistance, including food, medicines, winter utilities, etc., to prevent humanitarian crisis and refugee wave in Afghanistan. Of importance was the foreign minister stressing that according to the universally-accepted principles of the international law in particular, the Afghan people’s right to decide their own future independently and respecting the aspiration of the Afghan people for realising durable peace, their hope to see an Afghanistan enjoying stability, development, prosperity and harmonious relations with its neighboring countries.