Afghanistan War Won’t End Under Pakistan “Throttle Taliban Funding”

Afghanistan National Defense Ministry says that if Pakistan and neighboring countries cut aids and assistances to Taliban, the war in Afghanistan will end in just only 20 days.

Deputy spokesman of the defense ministry wants the international community to completely equip Afghan troops in combat against terrorism.

The Afghan war is not ending, and neither is the Taliban’s clout in Afghanistan. Recent incidents indicate that the tussle is only entering a new phase, reaching new heights of geopolitics in which Afghans themselves might have little to do or gain.

While the war in Afghanistan was never against the Taliban directly, it had become a fight against them in practice. Taliban forces had turned militant, far from their political roots, and that made them into an enemy of the United States and allied forces despite being deeply connected, it appears, to the Pakistani government.

Afghanistan efforts have been always failed in cooperating with Pakistan to suppress terrorists.

“We want Pakistan to curb their channels of funding, destroy their safe havens and stop any other support to Taliban,” Dawlat Waziri, deputy spokesman of defense ministry said.

In May 2015, the intelligence agencies of Pakistan and Afghanistan entered into a mutual intelligence co-operation agreement according to which both agencies would “cooperate” to rid their countries of the menace of “terrorism.”

The first-of-its-kind deal between the two intelligence agencies was preceded by a visit by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif along with Army Chief Gen. Raheel Sharif and ISI Chief Lt. Gen Rizwan Akhtar to Kabul during which the Pakistan government denounced the Taliban and said that future violence by the “militant group” would be treated as terrorism and responded to as such.

While officials on both countries expressed hope for a “better future,” there are many existing challenges that would continue to defy any such possibility.

Earlier, the former President, Hamid Karzai in his remarks criticized the intelligence agreement signed between the two countries; at a time that his successor, Ashraf Ghani, has overturned the country’s traditionally hostile relationship with Pakistan in the hope of enlisting its help in brokering a peace deal with the Taliban.

It’s not clear who the Taliban would turn to for support if Pakistan decided to step aside but probably Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan Ministry of Interior Affairs has also demanded for targeting terrorists financing sources in Pakistan and called on the country to take honest steps in fight against terrorism.

“Our demand from regional countries is to eliminate financing sources of Taliban and we also call on neighboring Pakistan to close terrorism training centers and honestly fight against terrorism,” Sidiq Sidiqi, spokesman of interior ministry said.

Afghan government has accused Pakistan of supporting Taliban in the past 14 years and the world also considers Pakistan the only window of hope to end insecurities and providing peace in Afghanistan.

Previously, the Obama administration has also warned Pakistan that it will withhold $300 million in military assistance if Islamabad doesn’t do more to crack down on militants targeting U.S. and Afghan troops in Afghanistan.

Since 2002, Pakistan has received about $1 billion a year under a U.S. program meant to reimburse it for costs incurred fighting militants near the Afghan border.

This comes as American troops will continue to remain in Afghanistan through the end of Barack Obama’s presidency beyond 2016 to end the Afghan war.

US decision also comes on the heels of the Taliban’s first takeover of any Afghan city, at a time when “the security situation is still very fragile.

With Afghanistan still far from any semblance of security, it’s hard to see how extending the longest war– now slated to go on more than a decade and a half – is anything but endless war.

Reported by Fawad Naseri

Edited by Muhammad Zakaria