Khalilzad urges Pakistan to choose politics over war

Former U.S. Special Envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, has called on Pakistan to abandon its current military-centric approach to dealing with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and instead pursue a political settlement to end the ongoing conflict.

In a strongly worded statement posted on social media, Khalilzad warned that the ongoing violence between Pakistan’s security forces and TTP militants has reached a “dangerous point,” with mounting casualties and no clear military solution in sight.

“The time has come to shift to a political strategy and negotiate,” Khalilzad wrote, adding that “Afghanistan must help Pakistan with such negotiations.”

His comments come amid a renewed surge in militant attacks in Pakistan’s tribal border regions with Afghanistan, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, where dozens of Pakistani security personnel and insurgents have been killed in recent months.

Khalilzad’s remarks carry weight given his central role in negotiating the 2020 Doha Agreement between the U.S. and the Islamic Emirate which ultimately paved the way for the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

He has previously argued that durable peace in South Asia requires political solutions rather than prolonged military campaigns.

A Growing Crisis

Violence has surged in Pakistan since the collapse of peace talks with the TTP in late 2022.

Many analysts believe that the group’s resurgence is partly due to the Islamic Emirate’s reluctance to rein in cross-border militancy, despite Pakistan’s repeated requests.

Islamabad has launched several counterterrorism operations in tribal districts, but with limited success.

The Islamic Emirate however has repeatedly denied allegations of TTP existence on Afghan soil and said it would not allow any group or individual to threaten the security of another country from Afghanistan territory.

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