From the early days of War on Terror (WOT), It looks like that Afghanistan’s Foreign Policy starts with thrashing all blames of militant attacks on Pakistan’s shoulders, and ends with inviting whole world especially United States (US) to attack and occupy Pakistan. At the start of this July ex-Afghan spy chief Amrullah Saleh while being interviewed at Al Jazeera TV, tried to provoke openly USA to go to all-out war with Pakistan. Quite recently, the launch of Operation Khyber-4 by Pakistan Army in Pak-Afghan border sparked uproar from Afghan officials. The Ministry of Defense (MoD) spokesman Dawlat Waziri lambasted Pakistan over Operation Khyber-4 on Thursday. According to him “Pakistan must take action against the Taliban and Haqqani network in its cities like Quetta and Islamabad where the insurgents are living with comfort”. Waziri’s pain about terrorists hiding in border area is reflected in his statements. It looks whether Pakistan is going to eradicate Afghanistan’s peaceful envoy in Pak-Afghan border area? The question is whether Pakistan should give Red Carpet reception to the terrorists coming from Afghanistan and hiding in Pak-Afghan border area? Waziri even forgot that Pakistan has already launched Operation Rad-ul-Fasaad throughout Pakistan to counter terrorism. India’s deep involvement in Afghanistan, under the cover of development projects, for terrorist activities in Pakistan has added fuel to fire. Afghanistan looks keener about India’s unfulfilled dreams of devastating Pakistan. It has become a chronic habit of Afghan officials that they declare Pakistan as culprit immediately after every militant attack. Even US CIA takes some time to investigate and find hidden forces behind any attack, but Afghan Intelligence agency, National Directorate of Security (NDS) declares with in no time, after every attack, that hidden hand behind is Pakistan.
Afghanistan has adopted a virulent policy about Pakistan. To construct a Foreign Policy is not a child’s play. It’s not a game of emotional statements. A country can change friends but not neighbors. Afghanistan’s deep anti-Pakistan strategic, security and Intelligence links with Pakistan’s arch rival India are open secrets now. Afghanistan must realize that no peace is possible in this region by harboring enemy of neighbor to commit terrorist activities across border. Pakistan has one of the best military capabilities in the orld. Even Soviet Union and India jointly could not sandwich Pakistan during Soviet-Afghan War (1979-89). Such a nuclear armed neighbor having top level armed forces can’t salute to incoming terrorists and appreciate those behind them. The need of time for Afghanistan is to modify its hostile Foreign Policy towards Pakistan. India, on one side, is gifting development projects to Afghanistan but on the other side provoking ire for it by terrorism in Pakistan. India can’t bring peace to Afghanistan by only development projects. Afghanistan has to face the bow-backs of each terrorist attack in Pakistan. Because of Afghan extreme tilt towards India, both Pakistan and Afghanistan are suffering. If development projects are the only cause of extreme Afghan tilt then these can also be done by a country which has accommodated millions of Afghan Refugees since almost last four decades i.e. Pakistan.
Besides India, Afghan authorities think military might of United States (US) behind them for their any untoward action against Pakistan. They must apprehend the history of US regarding foreign affairs. Americans never proved to be all-weather friends. They are only fair-weather friends. Their attitude towards weak allies is like Masters, not Friends. Americans think their allies dispensable. After Soviet defeat, they left Afghans meet their own fate. They never helped Pakistan in Wars against India, though India was allied to the Soviet Union and Pakistan was an ally of United States. Quite recently US President Donald Trump has ordered the Central Intelligence Agency to end its program aiding rebels fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. This abrupt decision by Americans shows how much US weighs its allies. These are the same rebels for whom US has downed a Syrian Aircraft just a month ago, which sparked severe outrage from the Russian side.
Americans, also, don’t like to see war-torn Pakistan because Russia is emerging as a Resurgent Superpower and Pakistan was the country who played a crucial role in its break down during Soviet-Afghan war.
Moreover, Afghanistan with its current attitude towards Pakistan, can’t win the support of leading Arab countries, which depend heavily on Pakistan for security.
Jawad Akram is an Islamabad based International Affairs Analyst.
He has done Masters in International Relations.
He can be reached at jawad5677@gmail.com or @Jawad5677
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