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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.
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Girls’ education is a ‘vital issue’ for Afghanistan: Karzai
Former president Hamid Karzai said in a meeting with Iran’s ambassador and special representative, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, that education of girls was a “vital issue” for Afghanistan.
Karzai said he appreciated Iran’s cooperation and its standing with the Afghan people, especially Iran’s contributions to education in Afghanistan.
During the meeting, Karzai said peace and stability in the region are in the interest of all regional countries.
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Uzbekistan’s humanitarian aid arrives in Balkh
A shipment of humanitarian aid from Uzbekistan was handed over on Thursday to the local officials of Balkh province in the trade port of Hairatan.
Local authorities said the aid, which includes flour, oil, wheat, sugar and meat, has been handed over by Uzbekistan’s Surkhandarya governor to the governor of Balkh.
The governor of Surkhandarya stated the purpose of sending this aid was to support the people of Afghanistan and stressed the need for the development of good relations between the two countries.
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Afghanistan’s problems caused more damage to Pakistan than 3 wars with India: Durrani
Islamabad’s special envoy for Afghanistan Asif Durrani said on Wednesday that Pakistan has suffered more due to Afghanistan’s internal situation than Pakistan has suffered in three wars with India in terms of blood spilt and finances drained.
Durrani said at a one-day International Conference titled “Pakistan in the Emerging Geopolitical Landscape”, which was organized by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) and the German Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), that over 80,000 Pakistanis died in the two decades of the War on Terror and that his country was still counting its dead and injured.
“After the withdrawal of NATO forces, it was hoped that peace in Afghanistan would bring peace to the region. However, such expectations were short-lived,” he said.
He also stated that attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group on Pakistan’s border areas increased by 65 percent, while suicide attacks increased by 500 percent.
“The TTP’s enhanced attacks on Pakistan while using Afghan soil have been a serious concern for Pakistan. Another worrying aspect is the participation of Afghan nationals in these attacks,” he said.
Durrani also said Pakistan had suffered geopolitically since the Soviet Union invaded the neighboring country.
“The post-9/11 world order has negatively impacted Pakistan. Apart from losing 80,000 citizens’ lives, including 8,000 law enforcement agency personnel, the country’s economic opportunity cost is estimated at $150 billion,” Durrani said.
Talking about the future outlook for Pakistan in the regional context, Durrani said that while “our eastern neighbor is likely to continue with its anti-Pakistan pursuits, the western border poses an avoidable irritant in the short to medium term.”
However, he said Pakistan can overcome its difficulties with Afghanistan, including the TTP challenge.
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