If Pakistan were to move it counterterrorism troops from the Afghan border to the Kashmir frontier in the face of exacerbation of tensions with India, Afghanistan peace prospects could face complications, Islamabad’s ambassador in Washington hinted in an interview.
Finding a viable peace arrangement in Afghanistan through Islamabad’s cooperation in the ongoing negotiations with the Taliban is a high priority for President Donald Trump, who is aiming to conclude the longest American war before 2020 reelection campaign.
Ambassador Asad Majeed Kha raised that spectacle of the Pakistani-Indian escalation affecting the Afghan process in a conversation with The New York Times editorial board Monday.
At the same time, the diplomat noted that the Kashmir and Afghanistan issues were separate and that he was not attempting to link them.
Rather, Pakistan hopes the American talks with the Taliban would succeed and that his country was actively supporting them.
“We are doing all that we can and will continue,” Ambassador Khan said. “It’s not an either-or situation.”
But Khan was clear-cut in warning that India’s unprecedented crackdown on occupied Kashmir after it annexed the disputed state “could not have come at a worse time for us.”
The Times noted in a piece that Pakistan has sought to strengthen military control along the western border with Afghanistan, an area long infiltrated by Taliban militants, as part of the effort to help end the Afghanistan conflict by denying the group a safe haven.
“We have our hands full” on the western border, Ambassador Khan said.
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“If the situation escalates on the eastern border, we will have to undertake redeployments.”
However, at the moment “we are not thinking about anything but what is happening on our eastern border,” he revealed.
Yet, the ambassador feared the crisis “unfortunately, I suspect, is going to get worse.”
He avoided sketching out a worsening scenario.
“We are two big countries, with very large militaries, with nuclear capability and a history of conflict, so I would not like to burden your imagination on that one,” he said. “But obviously if things get worse, things get worse.”
Iftikhar Ali is a veteran Pakistani journalist, former president of UN Correspondents Association, and a recipient of the Pride of Performance civil award
