Kabul, Islamabad Agree to Monitor Each Other’s Counter-Terror Operations

During Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi visit to Kabul on Friday, Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed to assign intelligence agents in their respective embassies based in Kabul and Islamabad, a governmental source has told Ariana News.

According to the source, the agents’ responsibilities will be to monitor the operations that will be conducted by Afghan and Pakistani forces against terrorists in each other’s soils based on the requests.

Javid Kohistani, a military expert, told Ariana News that Kabul has a long distance to form a joint intelligence committee with Islamabad because he believes there is still “a big mistrust atmosphere between the two sides”.

Assadullah Nadeem, another military expert, added: “Pakistan has always played a double standard policy in the fight against terrorism and the country will never cooperate with [Afghanistan] without having benefits.”

During his meetings with the Afghan leaders, Pakistan’s PM has also promised to cooperate in facilitating direct peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah have accepted Abbasi’s invitation to visit Islamabad.

“Afghan leaders accepted their invitation, but the time and the agenda of the visits are yet to be determined,” Javid Faisal, deputy spokesman to the country’s Chief Executive said.

This comes as Afghanistan has always blamed Pakistan for harboring terrorists in its soil and no effort has improved the relations between the two countries so far.