KABUL: Pakistan Ambassador to Kabul Zahid Nasrullah Khan denied Islamabad’s support to Taliban, said that his country is not supporting the group.
Although a number of Afghan political affairs analysts label Pakistan as the main supporter of Taliban but Khan said putting blames on Pakistan is ignoring problems in Afghanistan.
Talking to TOLO news, Khan said Taliban commute in the border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan and that it does not necessarily mean that Islamabad backs the group.
“We have already more than two million Afghan refugees living there (in Pakistan). So if somebody from there has shares of views or has sympathy with Taliban, you cannot say, that you know, Pakistan is supporting him. Also, as you know that we have a 2,611km of the border and as know that more than 30,000 people crossing every day. So, we are not supporting them,” said the ambassador. “To blame Pakistan is to really take your eyes off the real problems within Afghanistan.”
Khan meanwhile said that he hopes that Afghanistan’s Saturday elections will be held peacefully.
He said his country supports talks on Afghanistan’s peace.
“The government of Pakistan wishes great success in holding a credible parliamentary election. We know that there have been many challenges, but President Ghani has remained very firm and has ensured that the elections will be held the day after Friday on 20 October,” he said.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Ambassador to Kabul Mohammad Reza Bahrami said Tehran supports the Afghan peace process.
Bahrami said they want a sustainable peace in Afghanistan and that the Afghan government and the Afghan people should make the decisions on the war and peace in the country.
“Count us as one of the supporters of peace in Afghanistan. We want sustainable peace and the Afghan government and stakeholders inside Afghanistan should be involved in this process and in fact be the creators of a consensus in this country. It again belongs to the Afghan government and people, but in general, we welcome any phenomena that could bring peace,” said Bahrami.
This comes after US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad has started talks with regional stakeholders to move forward the Afghan peace process.
Khalilzad recently visited Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia and held talks with Taliban representatives in Qatar to start peace negotiations and break the Afghan war stalemate.
He has asked the Afghan government and the Taliban to form their negotiating teams. `