Pakistan Afghanistan Talks Cannot Be Unconditional, Foreign Office Says
Pakistan Afghanistan talks will not be unconditional. That was the message from Islamabad on Friday, delivered without any softening: the door to dialogue is open, the Foreign Office said, but it leads nowhere until Kabul agrees to a way of proving that attacks launched from Afghan soil have actually stopped.
Speaking at the weekly media briefing, spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan rejected any suggestion that Pakistan was avoiding engagement. Islamabad, he said, would welcome sincere efforts by friendly countries to help settle the dispute. What it will not accept is a conversation detached from results on the ground.
One demand, stated plainly
Pakistan, the spokesperson said, has a single demand — a verifiable mechanism that ensures a complete end to terrorist activity emanating from Afghanistan. In his telling, the Taliban authorities keep moving one step forward and one step back on the issue. At the heart of the row sits the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and other groups Islamabad accuses of operating from Afghan territory, an allegation Kabul has consistently denied.
Moscow, and a statement that never came
Russia has lately renewed its readiness to mediate, yet Khan said no formal Russian mediation initiative was currently under discussion. He pointed to the Moscow Format consultations on October 5, which broke up without a joint communiqué after the Afghan delegation refused wording on terrorist networks that had been agreed a year earlier. Earlier efforts have stalled at the same place: the ceasefire Qatar and Türkiye helped broker last October, talks hosted by Saudi Arabia, and a round in Urumqi, China, in April.
A warning for New Delhi, too
The briefing also carried a sharp reply to Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who a day earlier had threatened a bigger strike after any future terrorist attack. Khan dismissed the remarks as provocative, warned that any aggression would draw an even stronger response, and reminded India of the May confrontation last year, when Pakistan, he said, demonstrated both the capability and the resolve to defend itself.
