MOSCOW, May 12. /TASS/. Some external actors sought to pit Pakistan and Afghanistan against each other via intelligence activities and other means, Islamabad’s Ambassador to Moscow Faisal Niaz Tirmizi said in an interview with TASS.
"Thank God, the situation has calmed down. Of course, Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov has visited Kabul and he will also travel to Pakistan. In short, the situation has stabilized," the diplomat noted. "Unfortunately, some forces used Afghanistan in order to undermine stability in Pakistan – through intelligence activities, funding and military consultations. However, they should understand that Pakistan is a country of 250 million people with a standing army of almost one million, and it is also a nuclear power. It’s impossible to destabilize a country like Pakistan using terrporism as a tool," Tirmizi added.
According to him, it can be said that the conflict is actually over. "We have never wanted to carry out strikes on Afghanistan – a country we share an about 2,640-kilometer-long border with," the envoy stressed. "Ethnically, the same communities live on both sides of the border. Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group is the Pashtuns. For every Pashtun in Afghanistan, there are four Pashtuns in Pakistan, where they are the second-largest ethnic group," he specified.
Relations with Kabul
According to the diplomat, in the past, four Pakistani ambassadors were members of the Afghan royal family. "My father is buried beside two people who were the grandchildren of two Afghan rulers, and those grandchildren served in the Pakistani army. That said, we are one people," he noted, adding: "The Afghans will come to understand they need to maintain good working relations with Pakistan."
"We really did not want to use force but we had to do it because they were killing our civilians, our children, and our law enforcement officers. This is why we were forced to do that," Tirmizi said. "I hope that common sense will prevail and relations between the two countries will be about more trade and more cooperation. This is what we are telling the Afghans," he stressed.
Regional projects
The Pakistani ambassador is confident that "the future belongs to the region and the North-South Transport Corridor project that Russian President Vladimir Putin initiated in 2015."
"Afghanistan is the only country that is working against it. If the situation in Afghanistan is stable, then road, railway and other kinds of links can be established between Russia, Central Asia and Pakistan – and even India," the diplomat believes. "However, unfortunately, Afghanistan acts as directed <...> by some non-regional forces, which don’t want stability in Pakistan, China, Tajikistan and even Russia," Tirmizi added.