Move beyond words, Afghanistan tells Pakistan

Afghanistan urged Pakistan on Tuesday to “move beyond words” and take concrete steps to curb Islamist militants which it said were a threat to both countries, as Islamabad said it had been looking forward to working closely in its partnership with Kabul to ensure peace, security, stability and development in Afghanistan.
The two neighbours were holding their first talks since the assassination in September of the chief Afghan peace negotiator Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani. The meeting, hosted by Turkey, aims to heal a rift that is undermining prospects of ending the Afghan war. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari met along with Turkish President Abdullah Gul, while their army chiefs consulted ahead of an international conference on Afghanistan on Wednesday.
Karzai again ruled out peace talks with the Taliban until he knew how to contact the insurgent group, saying that until then Afghanistan would talk only to Pakistan. “We cannot keep talking to suicide bombers, therefore we have stopped talking about talking to the Taliban until we have an address for the Taliban … until that day we have said we will be talking to our brothers in Pakistan to find a solution to the problem that we have,” he said at a press conference following the summit. Karzai’s comments suggested the two countries were far from resolving their differences.
“We have been hurt badly, our desire for peace has been either misunderstood or misused and we have learnt a lesson from the manner in which we pursued the peace process,” Karzai added.
Karzai’s spokesman reiterated Afghan concerns that Pakistan was supporting the militants. “President Karzai’s message is that Pakistan needs to end using radicalism as a tool in their politics,” said Emal Fayzi. Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting in Istanbul that Afghanistan and Pakistan had been trying for several years to build trust “but I think we have failed to see results on the ground”. “So we are at a stage where we need to move beyond words, beyond expressions of commitments. We need to get to a stage where we actually do concrete things that will address our concerns with regards to our security,” he said.
Ludin said Islamabad’s cooperation was vital to the security of Afghanistan but also to Pakistan – which has also faced a wave of bombings by the Pakistani Taliban.
“So the message we are really bringing today is to tell Pakistan, ‘Look, you’re not doing us a favour by helping with bringing peace and security to Afghanistan… It’s a question of peace and security in Pakistan that’s also suffering at the hands of terrorism’,” he added.
HAQQANI NETWORK IN FOCUS: Pakistan had no immediate detailed comments on the talks though Interior Minister Rehman Malik said they were “very good”. Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who held separate talks in Istanbul with Afghanistan army chief General Sher Mohammad Karimi and the head of the Turkish military, declined to comment.
Asked about Pakistan’s initial response at the meeting, Ludin said: “The test remains to be taken and that is to the extent that we can actually see concrete steps to help with the peace process.” He also said Afghanistan wanted Pakistan to deal with the Haqqani network.
ZARDARI: In his address to the summit, President Zardari expressed full support and cooperation for the trilateral partnership between Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey and said Islamabad had been looking forward to working closely in this partnership to ensure peace, security, stability and development in Afghanistan.
Presidential Spokesman Farhatullah Babar said President Zardari expressed hope of a positive outcome to the trilateral summit and said: “We look forward to working closely in this trilateral partnership to build on our inherent strengths and guarantee our people a future free of fear, free of want.”
The president said the joint commission that had been set up with Afghanistan at the highest level of government underscored the seriousness of Pakistan’s commitment.
INVESTIGATION: Turkish President Gul said Afghanistan and Pakistan had agreed to cooperate with an investigation into the murder of Professor Rabbani. Kabul has accused Islamabad of refusing to cooperate in the investigation of the murder, which according to Afghan authorities, was planned in Pakistan and committed by a Pakistani suicide bomber.