Hours before Prime Minister Imran’s Khan meeting with President Donald Trump, former spymaster Rahmatullah Nabil has said it will be a mistake to think the road to peace in Afghanistan lies through Pakistan.
In a series of tweets, Nabil said the last time the US reliance on Pakistan led to the 9/11 tragedy. He cautioned against renewing Washington’s trust in Islamabad.
“The key difference between what happened in Bonn in 2001 & the US-led peace process now is that the US has given PAK & TBN veto power. When the process fails, some in the US will blame it on AFG disunity thought they should accept responsibility for their repeated mistakes of trusting PAK to be sincere in fighting terrorism. US-China-Moscow statement on AFG peace talks list ETIM as a terror organization, & they are right to do so, but why are all PAK terror groups given a free pass and not listed?” he asked.
“Khalilzad mentions peace agreement a lot his actions seem inconsistent with a peace agreement & is more consistent with the gradual withdrawal agreement. This has led to huge deficit of trust between Zal and the AFG Gov’t,” he said.
“Ashraf is focused on extending his term for another five years rather than be serious about a peace process. The lack of clarity by the US in the peace process has led to very unhelpful trends & speculation,” wrote Nabil
He warned the people of Afghanistan, the region and the US would suffer. “The Afghans will suffer if Washington thinks Pakistan as a reliable partner in fight against terrorism.”
