By Mitra Majeedy in TOLOnews Online, Dec 26, 2023 at 8:44 PM
The Express Tribune reported that Islamic Emirate acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said that most of the issues between Pakistan and the TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) had been sorted out and that both were close to striking a deal, but Islamabad backed out.
According to the report, during a conversation with Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed in Tehran on the sidelines of the conference on Palestine, Muttaqi said that Afghanistan was keen to resolve all issues with Islamabad through dialogue.
The Express Tribune cited Muttaqi as saying that in the negotiations the only outstanding issue was the merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the TTP wanted the reversal of the FATA merger, and Pakistan backed out of the talks, hence the stalemate, according to Muttaqi.
“The stance of the Islamic Emirate is very clear that we want security in all nearby and neighboring countries and we want to cooperate in this regard. Second… the Afghan soil is not used against anyone and we take serious actions in this regard,” said Zabiullah Mujahid, the Islamic Emirate’s spokesman.
In May 2022, Mujahid said that the Islamic Emirate hosted and mediated talks between the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Pakistani government.
Mujahid said then that there has been good progress in negotiations and that both sides agreed on a short-term ceasefire.
“The fundamental issue is that Pakistan itself created these groups to cause insecurity and reach its political and intelligence goals,” said Sarwar Niazai, a military analyst.
“Pakistan believes that the Afghan government should limit TTP and hand it over to Pakistan. This is what faced the negotiations with deadlock and thus the negotiations between the TTP and Pakistan with mediation of the Afghan government did not make progress,” said Sayed Javad Sijadi, a political analyst.
This comes as a Pakistani media outlet cited a report of the country’s Counter Terrorism Department that claimed 92 terrorists who were arrested for their alleged involvement in terror incidents in two years were Afghan nationals, and “terrorists of Afghan origin carried out 50 terror attacks in 2023 across Pakistan.” https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-186675
