Friday, March 29, 2024

FM Qureshi urges Taliban to listen to international opinion

In a statement released Tuesday, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that no one was in a hurry to recognize the Taliban government and urged them to be more sensitive and attentive to world perspectives.

During a meeting with members from the United Nations in New York, Foreign Minister Qureshi asked the international community to assist Afghans at a critical juncture by taking a variety of steps, including unfreezing their assets.

“Afghans have experienced war for the past four decades, and the international community should not abandon Afghans now,” the foreign minister said in a statement.

It was he who declared, “A stable Afghanistan will be beneficial to the entire region. Pakistan seeks peace and stability in Afghanistan because, if the situation in Afghanistan deteriorates, Pakistan will be [the] most adversely affected, according to the country.”

Qureshi stated that Pakistan has been housing more than three million Afghan refugees for the past four decades, despite having limited resources and receiving little financial assistance from the international community, according to him.

He went on to say that Pakistan’s economy can no longer support the influx of refugees.

In a statement, Qureshi stated that his country provided “unwavering support” for the evacuation of people, diplomatic personnel, and media representatives from several countries from Afghanistan.

According to the federal minister, Pakistan, like its other neighbors, is looking for a complete coalition government in Afghanistan to work with. In his remarks, he stated that Pakistan thinks that the reconciliation process in Afghanistan will not be finished until a government is formed that includes representatives from all political groups.

The early words made by Taliban officials are encouraging, according to Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who also stated that the Taliban’s best interests lie in respecting public opinion and upholding their commitments as they seek recognition from the international community.

At this point, I don’t believe anyone is in any hurry to recognise them, and the Taliban should keep an eye on this because they must become more sensitive and more attentive to foreign opinion.

For him, unfreezing the frozen assets of Afghanistan for [the] Afghans would be a significant step forward in confidence-building, and it would also help to incentivize positive behaviour, according to the Associated Press.

“On the one hand, you’re gathering funds to avert a disaster, but on the other side, you’re taking money that is theirs — money that belongs to them — and telling them they can’t spend it. I believe that freezing the assets is detrimental to the situation. That policy should be reconsidered, and the powers that be should consider the possibility of a reversal, I strongly urge them.”

Because international lenders are cautious of lending money that could be used by the Taliban, the United States froze $9.5 billion in Afghan central bank assets, and international lenders have remained away from Afghanistan.

According to Qureshi, numerous beneficial features have also developed as a result of Afghanistan’s current transitional period. It is a positive development that there has been no bloodshed or civil war during this transition, according to him, who also believes that the Taliban’s statements regarding the end of the war and amnesty, as well as the respect for fundamental human rights and the protection of women’s rights, are encouraging.

Read more: Taliban denounced 9/11 attack: Suhail Shaheen

Latest news