UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan hosts over two million Afghan refugees and expects gratitude, not hostility, from the government of the neighbouring country, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations Dr Maleeha Lodhi told the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday.

Terrorist “safe havens” were inside, not outside, Afghanistan, she said, given that large areas of that country were now under the Taliban’s control.

Speaking during a debate on Afghanistan, she reasoned: “The resilience of the insurgency led by the Taliban cannot be explained away by convenient references to external ‘safe havens’ or ‘support centres’.”

Pakistan, she asserted, was committed not to allowing its territory to be used for terrorism against other countries. Pakistan’s military operations had succeeded in eliminating all terrorist and militant groups from its tribal territory bordering Afghanistan.

She told the 15-member council that Pakistan was “implementing border controls, including the fencing and monitoring of vulnerable sections of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border”.

Referring to the political differences that have become more pronounced recently within the Afghan government, the ambassador said the conflict had exacerbated the situation at a time when the country was faced with the twin challenge of the Taliban insurgency and terrorism promoted by the militant Islamic State group and its affiliates.

“Today, there is every reason for the Afghan parties and their friends to pursue the path of a negotiated peace. All of them face a common threat from IS and the terrorist groups affiliated with it,” Ms Lodhi said.

The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Jamaatul Ahrar attack Pakistan from their bases in Afghanistan, she alleged. Apart from Afghanistan itself, there is no country other than Pakistan, which has suffered more from the wars and violence that have engulfed Afghanistan for over 35 years.

Therefore, “there is no other country [like Pakistan] which will gain more from peace in Afghanistan,” added Ambassador Lodhi.

The main thrust of Ambassador Lodhi’s arguments centred on the need for a negotiated end to the Afghan war. She said that it had been Pakistan’s consistent position that peace could be restored only through a negotiated settlement between Kabul and the Tehreek-i-Taliban Afghanistan.

This, she pointed out, “has also long been the consensus of the international community,” noting that a negotiated peace was also backed by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who had recently visited Kabul.

“The promotion of a political settlement and the pursuit of a military solution in Afghanistan are mutually incompatible,” she said.

Continued reliance on a military option, or enhancing troop numbers without an accompanying political strategy, would only lead to more violence and bloodshed, Ambassador Lodhi told the Security Council.

“It [military involvement] would not yield a political settlement,” she added.

Stressing the need to find a negotiated solution, she said that Pakistan had done whatever it could to help facilitate a negotiated settlement. In regard to these [negotiation] efforts, she referred to Murree talks 2015, and efforts under the Quadrilateral Coordination Group framework.

She also recalled Pakistan’s engagement with the Heart of Asia conference, the International Contact Group, the Moscow Format, and, most recently, the development in Kabul, among others.

However, she made it clear that while others could help by promoting a negotiated settlement, peace could only be negotiated when Afghan parties desired it and eschewed a military solution.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2017