report in The Express Tribune, July 13th, 2018.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan hosted on Wednesday an unprecedented meeting of heads of intelligence agencies from Russia, China and Iran to discuss counter terrorism cooperation, with particular focus on the buildup of Islamic State in turmoil-hit Afghanistan.
Official sources in Islamabad confirmed that the participants held detailed discussions on joint measures to stop Afghan-based loyalists of the Middle Eastern terrorist group from threatening the territorial boundaries of the four nations.
The unusual huddle brought together spymasters from the countries which are “directly affected” by IS-led terrorism. However, it was “not targeted against any other country as it may be viewed,” the sources asserted in a bid to allay suggestions that cooperation involving Russia, China and Iran could undermine US-led efforts to stabilise Afghanistan.
A spokesperson for Moscow’s Foreign Intelligence Service also confirmed that the emergence of IS in Afghanistan prompted the deliberations in Islamabad.
“The conference reached understanding of the importance of coordinated steps to prevent the trickling of IS terrorists from Syria and Iraq to Afghanistan, where from they would pose risks for neighbouring countries,” Sergei Ivanov told state-run TASS media outlet.
He said the director of the Russian spy agency, Sergei Naryshkin, attended the Islamabad meeting along with Chinese and Iranian counterparts. They “stressed the need for a more active inclusion of regional powers in the efforts” to end the war in Afghanistan.
The discussions followed months of Russian allegations that the United States is behind growing IS influence, particularly in northern Afghan provinces next to the border with Central Asian countries. Washington dismissed the charges as rumours, and an attempt to justify Moscow’s links to the Taliban insurgency.
Russian envoy to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, while addressing a Security Council meeting on Afghanistan last month, asserted that IS is creating training camps in the country for its fighters, including those who come from Central Asian states.
“This is a group, which has up to 10,000 fighters in its ranks, and it is already active in at least nine out of 34 provinces … and is constantly consolidating its positions in the north of the country, turning it into a springboard for its expansion into Central Asia,” Nebenzya said.
Iran, which shares a long border with Afghanistan, has raised similar concerns in the wake of IS’s growing terrorist activities in the region.
IS calls its Afghan branch Khorasan Province, or ISKP, and it routinely carries out deadly suicide bombings in the war-hit country and occasionally plots such attacks in neighbouring Pakistan.
Pakistani officials maintain the terrorist group has established strong bases in “ungoverned spaces” in Afghanistan and plans cross-border terrorist attacks from there.
They cite US military assessments that the Afghan government controls less than 60 percent of the territory.
Islamabad, Moscow, Beijing and Tehran have all maintained contacts with the Taliban, saying they are meant to persuade the insurgency to seek a negotiated settlement to the Afghan war.
But the diplomatic ties with insurgents have upset both Kabul and Washington because they see them as an attempt to legitimise the Taliban’s violent campaign.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/1756610/1-pakistan-hosts-spy-chiefs-russia-china-iran/
Quadrilateral meeting of spymasters: Editorial in The Express Tribune, July 14th, 2018.
Pakistan earlier this week hosted what was dubbed an unprecedented huddle of spy chiefs of Russia, China and Iran. While the Foreign Office here expressed ignorance, the Russian state news agency had quoted the spokesperson for Moscow’s Foreign Intelligence Service as saying that the emergence of Islamic State or Daesh in Afghanistan prompted the deliberations in Islamabad. “The conference reached understanding of the importance of coordinated steps to prevent the trickling of IS terrorists from Syria and Iraq to Afghanistan, where from they would pose risks for neighbouring countries,” Sergei Ivanov told the state-run media outlet.The real agenda of this quadrilateral meeting aside, the coming together of intelligence chiefs of four countries is itself big news. The development indicates a deepening understanding among the key regional players, which during the Cold-War era were in opposite camps. What necessitated this paradigm shift is clearly the lingering conflict in Afghanistan. Pakistan and China may not have said it publicly but Russia and Iran are quite forthcoming in pointing a finger at the US for being behind the rise of Daesh in Afghanistan. It is because of this reason that Russia, Iran and China have now all maintained contacts with the Afghan Taliban. These countries believe that the Afghan Taliban can serve as a bulwark against the more lethal Daesh. That is why there is consensus among all the regional players that there has to be a peace deal between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Failure to negotiating end to the 17-year-long conflict would only increase the footprint of Daesh, which unlike the Taliban, has a global agenda. And that is the main worry for Afghanistan’s immediate neighbours.
But Washington is likely to view the Islamabad huddle with suspicion. This is because Afghanistan has unfortunately long been the battleground for the big powers competing for their strategic interests, although everyone, including the US, has now recognised the need for political solution to end the conflict. If that is the ultimate goal then certainly the scope of quadrilateral discourse can be expanded by inviting other stakeholders. https://tribune.com.pk/story/1757435/6-quadrilateral-meeting-spymasters/
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