Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned on Wednesday that there would be no hope for peace in his war-ravaged nation without help from its neighbours to combat “terror groups”. “Terrorist networks are by far the major threat to Afghanistan’s security,” Karzai said at a global conference in Istanbul aimed at mapping out his country’s future. “They continue to have sanctuaries outside of our border from where they conduct their merciless campaign of destruction,” he said. “Unless regional cooperation is assured to address the core and root of this issue peace in Afghanistan will remain elusive.”
Representatives from some 20 countries joined aid agency members at the one-day Istanbul meeting, being held almost 10 years after the Taliban militia were driven out of power in Kabul by a US-led coalition. “When it comes to terrorism, a threat that targets not only Afghanistan, but other countries in the region and the world, we require the sincere, result-oriented cooperation of all of our neighbours… and particularly the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai told AFP. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said the situation in Afghanistan had not improved over the 10 years since the US-led invasion in the wake of the September 11 attacks of 2001.
Stressing on an Afghan-led peace process meanwhile, India called for a regional framework for stabilising Afghanistan and ruled out competition – an allusion to Pakistan – even as it opposed external interference in affairs of that country, Zee News reported. “India supports the aims and objectives of this conference: to bring regional countries together on an inclusive platform to address the common challenges facing the region, and working towards cooperative confidence-building measures and solutions,” India’s External Affairs Minister SM Krishna said at the conference.
He observed that in the last decade, the role of regional countries in bringing stability to Afghanistan “has not been given adequate importance”. Opposing external interference, Krishna stressed the need to tackle safe havens and sanctuaries for terror as he said security, good governance and development are critical for Afghanistan’s future. “Afghanistan’s regional neighbours and friends can work with the wider international community to provide Afghanistan a helping hand to assist it in the transition and beyond,” said Krishna.
