Pakistan: Don't Isolate the Taliban    09/24 06:19

   

   UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Be realistic. Show patience. Engage. And above all, 
don't isolate. Those are the pillars of an approach emerging in Pakistan to 
deal with the fledgling government that is suddenly running the country next 
door once again -- Afghanistan's resurgent, often-volatile Taliban.

   Pakistan's government is proposing that the international community develop 
a road map that leads to diplomatic recognition of the Taliban -- with 
incentives if they fulfill its requirements -- and then sit down face to face 
and talk it out with the militia's leaders.

   Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi outlined the idea Wednesday 
in an interview with The Associated Press on the sidelines of the U.N. General 
Assembly's meeting of world leaders.

   "If they live up to those expectations, they would make it easier for 
themselves, they will get acceptability, which is required for recognition," 
Qureshi told the AP. "At the same time, the international community has to 
realize: What's the alternative? What are the options? This is the reality, and 
can they turn away from this reality?"

   He said Pakistan "is in sync with the international community" in wanting to 
see a peaceful, stable Afghanistan with no space for terrorist elements to 
increase their foothold, and for the Taliban to ensure "that Afghan soil is 
never used again against any country."

   "But we are saying, be more realistic in your approach," Qureshi said. "Try 
an innovative way of engaging with them. The way that they were being dealt 
with has not worked."

   Expectations from the Taliban leadership could include an inclusive 
government and assurances for human rights, especially for women and girls, 
Qureshi said. In turn, he said, the Afghan government might be motivated by 
receiving development, economic and reconstruction aid to help recover from 
decades of war.

   He urged the United States, the International Monetary Fund and other 
countries that have frozen Afghan government funds to immediately release the 
money so it can be used "for promoting normalcy in Afghanistan." And he pledged 
that Pakistan is ready to play a "constructive, positive" role in opening 
communications channels with the Taliban because it, too, benefits from peace 
and stability.

   This is the second time that the Taliban, who adhere to a strict version of 
Islam, have ruled Afghanistan. The first time, from 1996 to 2001, ended when 
they were ousted by a U.S.-led coalition after the 9/11 attacks, which were 
directed by Osama bin Laden from Afghanistan.

   During that rule, Taliban leaders and police barred girls from school and 
prohibited women from working outside the home or leaving it without a male 
escort. After they were overthrown, Afghan women still faced challenges in the 
male-dominated society but increasingly stepped into powerful positions in 
government and numerous fields.

   But when the U.S. withdrew its military from Afghanistan last month, the 
government collapsed and a new generation of the Taliban resurged, taking over 
almost immediately. In the weeks since, many countries have expressed 
disappointment that the Taliban's interim government is not inclusive as its 
spokesman had promised.

   While the new government has allowed young girls to attend school, it has 
not yet allowed older girls to return to secondary school, and most women to 
return to work despite a promise in April that women "can serve their society 
in the education, business, health and social fields while maintaining correct 
Islamic hijab."

   The challenges ahead were evident Thursday, when one of the founders of the 
Taliban said the hard-line movement will once again carry out executions and 
amputations of hands, though perhaps not in public.

   Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, who was the chief enforcer of the Taliban's harsh 
interpretation of Islamic law when they last ruled Afghanistan, dismissed 
outrage over the Taliban's executions in the past, which sometimes took place 
in front of crowds at a stadium. He warned the world against interfering with 
their rule.

   "Everyone criticized us for the punishments in the stadium, but we have 
never said anything about their laws and their punishments," Turabi told The 
Associated Press, speaking in Kabul. "No one will tell us what our laws should 
be. We will follow Islam and we will make our laws on the Quran."

   Pakistan, which shares a long border with Afghanistan, has a long and 
sometimes conflicted relationship with its neighbor that includes attempts to 
prevent terrorism there and, some say, also encouraging it. The Islamabad 
government has a fundamental vested interest in ensuring that whatever the new 
Afghanistan offers, it is not a threat to Pakistan.

   That, Qureshi says, requires a steady and calibrated approach.

   "It has to be a realistic assessment, a pragmatic view on both sides, and 
that will set the tone for recognition eventually," the Pakistani minister 
said. The good news, he said: The Taliban are listening, "and they are not 
insensitive to what is being said by neighbors and the international community."

   How does he know they're listening? He says the interim government, drawn 
mostly from Afghanistan's dominant Pashtun ethnic group, made some additions on 
Tuesday. It added representatives from the country's ethnic minorities -- 
Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras, who are Shiite Muslims in the majority Sunni Muslim 
country.

   "Yes, there are no women yet," Qureshi said. "But let us let the situation 
evolve."

   He stressed that the Taliban must make decisions in coming days and weeks 
that will enhance their acceptability.

   "What the international community can do, in my view, is sit together and 
work out a roadmap," Qureshi said. "And if they fulfill those expectations, 
this is what the international community can do to help them stabilize their 
economy. This is the humanitarian assistance that can be provided. This is how 
they can help rebuild Afghanistan, reconstruction and so on and so forth."

   He added: "With this roadmap ahead, I think an international engagement can 
be more productive."

   On Wednesday night, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said after a 
meeting of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council that all 
five nations -- the United States, China, Britain, Russia and France -- want 
"an Afghanistan at peace, stable, where humanitarian aid can be distributed 
without problems or discrimination."

   He also described a hoped-for "Afghanistan where the rights of women and 
girls are respected, an Afghanistan that won't be a sanctuary for terrorism, an 
Afghanistan where we have an inclusive government representing the different 
sectors of the population."

   And on Thursday, the top U.S. diplomat said it was "critical" that the 
international community remained united in ensuring that the Taliban meet all 
commitments they made -- including freedom for Afghans to travel, respect of 
human rights and barring terrorists from the country -- before granting 
legitimacy and support beyond humanitarian assistance.

   Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he delivered that message both to the 
U.N. Security Council and foreign ministers of the 20 major economic powers. 
Japan's Foreign Ministry said Thursday that at the closed G20 meeting, 
"participants confirmed the importance of ... sending a unified message so that 
the Taliban takes steps in the right direction."

   Qureshi said there are different forums where the international community 
can work out how to approach the situation. In the meantime, he asserted, 
things seem to be stabilizing. Less than six weeks after the Taliban seized 
power on Aug. 15, he said, Pakistan has received information that the 
law-and-order situation has improved, fighting has stopped and many internally 
displaced Afghans are going home.

   "That's a positive sign," Qureshi said.

   He said Pakistan hasn't seen a new influx of Afghan refugees -- a sensitive 
issue for Pakistanis, who are highly motivated to prevent it. A humanitarian 
crisis, a foundering economy and workers who return to jobs and school but 
aren't getting salaries and don't have money could cause Afghans to flee across 
the porous border into Pakistan, which has suffered economically from such 
arrivals over decades of conflict.

   Qureshi prescribed patience and realism. After all, he says, every previous 
attempt to stabilize Afghanistan has failed, so don't expect new efforts to 
produce immediate success with the Taliban. If the United States and its allies 
"could not convince them or eliminate them in two decades, how will you do it 
in the next two months or the next two years?" he wondered.

   Asked whether he had a prediction of what Afghanistan might be like in six 
months, Qureshi turned the question back on his AP interviewer, replying: "Can 
you guarantee me U.S. behavior over the next six months?"