Pakistan, Afghanistan in a new counterterrorism drive

Nahla Abdel Monem

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (aka ISIS) is expanding in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Religious extremism is also expanding rapidly in the two states for different reasons.

Pakistani Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, has called for holding a peace conference in his country. He also invited Pakistan’s politicians and tribal chieftains to attend the conference.

On June 22, Qureshi inaugurated a peace conference, called “Operation Lahore”. The conference will last for three days in an area near Pakistani capital Islamabad.

Addressing the conference, Qureshi said he hoped there would be peace between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Qureshi believes that peace in Afghanistan will affect the security situation in his country. Terrorist and extremist groups, he said, have become a major threat to the national security of the country.

He called for ending interferences decades of regional conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Pakistani foreign minister said the conference would be followed by an official visit by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to Pakistan on Thursday.

The Afghan president, he said, will reaffirm cooperation between his country and Pakistan and end the era of “mutual mistrust” and political conflict.

Simultaneous developments

The conference comes days before the seventh round of talks between the United States and the Taliban, whose members have not been invited to the conference, to end the 17-year US military presence in Afghanistan and ensure that the country’s territory is not taken as a platform for attacking US interests.

It also coincides with international calls by Pakistan’s envoy at the United Nations, Maleeha Lodhi, on June 21 on the need for all the Afghan parties to have dialogue to end the crisis in their country.

Lodhi pointed to the role of her country in mediating between the Taliban and the government to approve the peace process expected.

Longstanding conflict

Many rely on recent efforts to resolve the conflict between the two countries in preparation for peace agreements to ensure the calm of the region after the departure of US forces.

The two countries have been fighting since 1947 – the date of Pakistan’s independence – on the border between them, which includes the Direund line stretching more than 2.5 kilometers, and with the complexity of the situation and the spread of extremist movements on their territory, each exchanged allegations of containing extremist elements and support materially and logistically.

The escalation of skirmishes in the era of former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has repeatedly accused Pakistan of supporting terrorism, but his successor Ashraf Ghani, announced since the first day a new policy towards the neighboring country and cooperation with them to reduce the chances of terrorism in the region.

On March 26, 2019, Kabul summoned its ambassador to Islamabad after Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s remarks about the failure of direct negotiations between the Afghans and the Taliban and his call for a neutral government to negotiate with the terrorist movement.

In the light of the above, politicians and analysts are waiting for the results of the Afghan-Pakistani rapprochement with extremist groups in the region, especially with the Taliban not invited to the conference, which may have different implications for long-standing differences.

With regard to the role of political conflicts on the spread of terrorism, a study of the University of Leiden in the Netherlands on this matter: The areas occupied by the battles and political conflicts remain a soft ground to attract terrorism, because of the weak security capabilities of the state organs as a result of their preoccupation with partial conflicts and ambitions, Makes the process of entry and exit of weapons possible for gangs exploiting those crises, and some parties may employ extremist groups in their regional conflicts to strengthen their stature, which is subsequently instilled in their support.