Observer Report Islamabad
Acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi has confirmed that they are mediating between Pakistan and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, though no agreement has been reached yet.
Muttaqi, who was visiting Islamabad mainly to attend the Troika Plus meeting, told BBC Urdu in an interview published on Sunday that the Taliban government is mediating on the desire of both the parties in Pakistan.
He said that the parties has not yet reached an agreement. However, he added, the beginning was a good one with the announcement of a month-long ceasefire.
The acting foreign minister said that he is hopeful that the process would not come across any difficulties in the future and that the closeness between the TTP and Pakistan would increase.
In what the BBC described as his first interview with a lady journalist, Muttaqi said that Da’ish was a threat in Afghanistan, however, the Taliban government had eliminated it from a major part of the country.
“Isolated incidents can take place anywhere. Earlier, 70% of Afghanistan was under the control of the Islamic Emirates.
Now, Da’ish has been purged from all these areas. They existed only in the areas which were ruled by the former Kabul government,” he said.
He said after the Taliban takeover, Da’ish started surfacing but the interim government took effective measures and confined the terrorist group to certain areas.
“The isolated [terrorist] incidents at some places like mosques, can take place anywhere in the world.” To a question about the Taliban government’s ties with India, he said that Afghanistan did not desire any confrontation with any country including India.