From skirmishes to reassurance: Taliban appeals to Pakistan despite the difficulty between the neighbors

The skirmishes between the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani government have not stopped since the extremist movement seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, and the Pakistani-Afghan border is witnessing movements that sometimes amount to the use of weapons between the two parties, in addition to closing the crossings between the two neighboring countries due to the security and political crises between them, which has led to the disruption of commercial traffic between them and caused frequent crises in the movement of individuals. In the midst of this crisis, the Taliban foreign minister recently came out to present steps that try to show the good intentions of the movement towards Pakistan in the coming period.

Muttaqi speech

Acting Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi delivered a speech at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) in the Pakistani capital on Monday, May 8, in which he called on the Taliban movement, the Pakistani wing of the movement, and the government of Pakistan to solve their problems through dialogue, adding that he does not want insecurity and bloodshed in Pakistan.

Muttaqi tried to take steps towards rapprochement with the Pakistani government and reassure Islamabad on the future of relations between the Afghan Taliban and Pakistan, and he promised Islamabad during his speech that “Afghan lands will not be used against any country.”

Troubled background

Contrary to the statements of Muttaqi, who is trying to clear his movement from targeting Pakistani lands by armed groups, led by the Pakistani Taliban movement, which took advantage of the Taliban’s seizure of power in Afghanistan and began moving freely on the borders between the two countries, utilizing the empty arena in front of it and the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan.

Noor Wali Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban movement, appeared a few weeks after the Afghan movement seized power in video recordings published by the movement in October 2021 while he was freely walking around Afghanistan, which led to great discontent in Islamabad.

It also showed the support of the leaders of the Afghan Taliban for the Pakistani movement, which it considers a part of the mother movement, providing them with safe haven on Afghan soil to take as a springboard to repeat the experience of the Afghan movement in Pakistan.

After the Taliban came to power, Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, who is known to have close relations with the Pakistani fighters, affirmed, “It is unreasonable for us to take up arms in order to implement Sharia law in Afghanistan while Pakistan is governed by non-Islamic law, so we should now work hard for the implementation of Sharia law in Pakistan and the overthrow of the puppet government.”

On April 11, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif confirmed in statements he made to Voice of America (VOA) radio that the Taliban militants are present in Afghanistan, and he accused the Afghan Taliban of being allied with the Pakistani Taliban and therefore not taking any action against them.

What next?

Regarding the extent to which Muttaqi’s statements are considered to be heading towards proving the good intentions of the Taliban government towards Pakistan, researcher Mohamed Abadi, a specialist in international affairs, confirmed that this discourse theoretically seeks to prove that the movement is committed to the Doha Agreement, the provisions of which included the movement’s commitment not to use Afghan lands against any country and not transforming Afghanistan into a safe haven for armed groups.

He pointed out in exclusive statements to the Reference that it has now become necessary to coordinate between Pakistan and the Taliban government to settle the differences between them and to develop a long-term future plan to establish security and stability between the two parties.

Abadi stressed that this path is not easy at the present time due to the armed wing of the Taliban adhering to its principles that it adopts as a belief, which considers Pakistan a non-Islamic country from their point of view and that its government does not apply Sharia law; however, the surrounding circumstances may require them to change this view, although security may take a long time to achieve.