The United States (US) has urged Pakistan that it should not recognise the Taliban government until it gives women their due rights and allows Afghans who want to leave the country to do so, reports Khaleej Times.
Testifying before Congress on the Taliban victory in Afghanistan, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “What we have to look at is an insistence that every country, to include Pakistan, make good on the expectations that the international community has of what is required of a Taliban-led government if it’s to receive any legitimacy of any kind or any support.” He said the priorities included ensuring the Taliban let out people who want to leave Afghanistan and respect the rights of women, girls and minorities, as well as adhere to promises that the country not again become “a haven for outward-directed terror”.
“Pakistan’s policies have been on many occasions detrimental to our interests, on other occasions in support of those interests. It is one that involved hedging its bets constantly about the future of Afghanistan, it’s one that’s involved harboring members of the Taliban … It is one that’s also involved in different points cooperation with us on counterterrorism,” Blinken said.
“This is one of the things we’re going to be looking at in the days, and weeks ahead – the role that Pakistan has played over the last 20 years but also the role we would want to see it play in the coming years and what it will take for it to do that,” he said.
Commenting on the US-Taliban relationship, Blinken said, “We achieved our objectives in Afghanistan,” adding that it was time to end the two-decade-long war.
“The US will continue to play its role to promote anti-terrorism in the region,” he said, adding that the Taliban had also promised to not let Daesh and Al-Qaeda use the country for militant activities.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that the practice of human rights by the Taliban in Afghanistan was connected to economic pressures, reports Dawn.
“Ensuring sustainable development and promoting respect for human rights requires political stability and peace in Afghanistan. And peace cannot consolidate unless Afghanistan is provided the necessary economic and fiscal space,” said Qureshi in a video statement made at the UN conference on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.
