Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, recently said that Kabul should stop blaming Pakistan for its domestic issues and that Islamabad was made a scapegoat anytime the country’s affairs were not going well.
The foreign minister stated that Afghan authorities must demonstrate flexibility to take the peace process ahead in an interview with Afghanistan’s Tolo News last week, which was published on Sunday.
“Unfortunately when things aren’t moving in the right direction, you [Afghanistan] are looking for scapegoats and the favorite scapegoat you have in Pakistan,” he maintained.
“When there’s a failure within [Afghanistan] you blame Pakistan for that. Pakistan is not responsible for the failure within, for the squabbling going on in Afghanistan, if the Afghan leadership can’t sit and work out a peace deal,” he added.
The foreign minister said that the bulk of Taliban leadership was not in Pakistan but in Afghanistan. “We are only engaging with them [Taliban] to facilitate the peace process and try to be helpful and constructive,” he said.
On the margins of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum on Sunday, Qureshi met with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu. They discussed the current advances in the Afghan peace process as well as the international military pullout.
Foreign Minister Qureshi complimented his Turkish counterpart on the effective organization of the world leaders’ summit. The conference, he said, offered a great chance to debate and participate in a variety of current global problems.
The two ministers reviewed the preparations for the 7th Session of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council (HLSCC), which will be held in Turkey this year, after taking stock of the two countries’ outstanding bilateral ties.
Turkey’s important efforts and outreach to different Afghan parties were praised by Qureshi. Qureshi emphasized Pakistan’s continuous efforts to assist the peace process, emphasizing Pakistan’s long-term interest in a peaceful, secure, and stable Afghanistan.
He expressed the hope that the Afghan parties will take advantage of the situation and reach an inclusive, politically mediated solution.
Dr. Hadi Soleimanpour, Secretary-General of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), met with the foreign minister in an informal meeting. He urged for a concerted effort to combat the rising trend of Islamophobia and religious prejudice in many areas of the globe.
They spoke on Pakistan’s active involvement in the ECO, trade development among member countries, and other topics of mutual interest.
According to the foreign minister, Pakistan is making genuine efforts to promote mutual trade, economic growth, and regional peace and stability in light of the ECO framework.
He also urged for continued collaboration in Afghanistan in order to achieve long-term peace, development, and rebuilding.
Pakistan’s active involvement in the organization, as well as Prime Minister Imran Khan’s participation at the virtually conducted summit in March this year, were praised by the ECO secretary-general.
Separately, Qureshi told CNN Turkey that before pursuing a plan to give over the security of Kabul Airport to Turkey, he should engage with the Afghan government and Taliban to get their support.
“It is important to engage with Afghan government and Taliban to tell them the objective of their proposal. They should get them on board before actually going about doing it,” the foreign minister said.
According to Qureshi, Turkey is supplying services, including troops, to keep the airport operational and keep Kabul connected to the rest of the world.
He went on to say that when the high-level conference on the Afghan peace process was postponed in April, he chose to go to Istanbul to conduct a trilateral meeting with Turkish and Afghan foreign ministers to discuss the next steps in the peace process.
“We are in touch. In my view, the conference was a good initiative. It should have happened and Pakistan had supported it. And if they agree to hold one, we will continue to be supporting that,” he remarked.
In an interview with Azeri media, the foreign minister said Pakistan and Azerbaijan had a friendly bilateral relationship and remembered his Azeri counterpart’s visit to Islamabad when they discussed the bilateral ties’ future trajectory.
He expressed his pleasure at learning that the Pakistani flag was raised beside the Azerbaijani flag following Azerbaijan’s victory in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Qureshi urged that India abstain from taking any additional unlawful measures in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) after breaching international law and UNSC resolutions with its illegal and unilateral activities on August 5, 2019, according to a statement released by the Foreign Office.
The minister urged the international community, particularly members of the UN Security Council, to prevent India from intensifying its unlawful activities in IIOJK and jeopardizing the region’s already fragile peace and security situation.
“The foreign minister underlined that durable peace in South Asia can only be achieved by peacefully resolving the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UNSC resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people,” the FO statement read.
The minister reaffirmed Pakistan’s strong determination to resist any Indian efforts aimed at dividing IIOJK in order to alter the demographic structure of the occupied region, erode Kashmiris’ unique identity, and prolong Indian control of the disputed territory.
