Afghan political analyst and university lecturer, Daud Moradian, has stressed the need to hold talks with Pakistan from a strong position with the help of a strong administration and a transparent foreign diplomacy.
Speaking on Tolo TV's "Kankash" or "Consultation" programme, attended by two other experts on political affairs, Harun Mir and Mohammad Taher Ashemi, Moradian said: "Pakistan and organizations like it should always be pressured to respond. It does not pay heed to a soft policy only. In addition to a gentle policy, Afghanistan should also use other resources. It should strive to form a strong and stable administration. Pakistan will never negotiate with a flawed and weak administration in Afghanistan. The government and media should give more incentives to our military forces. Social partnership should be expanded. Unfortunately, a lot of gaps are created between the north and south in addition to other problems. Pakistanis will never strike a deal with a weak government and society with a lot of gaps. This is the internal aspect of our problem."
He added: "In its external aspect, we lack strategic cards. For example, as a representative of Afghanistan, if I sit at the negotiation table with the Pakistanis, what cards can I play? I do not have atomic weapons, Pakistan has. I do not have the card of terrorism. The Taleban are a very strong card in the hands of Pakistan. Our economy is dependent. We have a weak administration. What cards have I got to play with? We have a very important card, our relations with the USA. It is very important for Afghanistan to strengthen its ties with the USA. Another card is India and Afghanistan can have this card too. We need to strengthen the potential of our relations with India. This way, we can have the card of India. We can have the card of regional cooperation. We can have the card of an active diplomacy. When we have some cards, Pakistan will strike a deal with us. Pakistanis will never respond to us if we only smile and make friendly remarks.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Taher Ashemi said that President Karzai's latest visit to Pakistan would not produce any outcome and the Afghan and Pakistani presidents made some ceremonial remarks during this visit. Also, he slammed the Afghan president for not responding to the Pakistani government when it claimed terrorists were coming from Afghanistan to Pakistan.
He said: "I can say that I have not observed any positive points in Karzai's remarks during his visit to Pakistan to help improve the situation in Afghanistan. All they have done is make some ceremonial remarks which are made during official visits. The only issue Karzai raised, and I don't think the outcome will serve Afghanistan, is that he said that if it has been proved that terrorists are crossing the Pakistani border from Afghanistan, the Afghan government must answer this... It has been proved over the past eight years that terrorists have never been armed in Afghanistan and sent to Pakistan... The president may have thought that this is a friendly visit and he should raise only issues that can help achieve peace, but we should remember that today regional countries have openly announced their stance and policies on Afghanistan. Therefore, we should refrain from making remarks that affect Afghanistan. I am sure hereafter Pakistan will step up repeating such allegations that the Taleban are trained in Afghanistan and sent to Pakistan. Also, we should take into account the fact that actually Afghanistan does not have the ability to train Taleban. We do not have what Pakistan has, like seminaries which have been producing Taleban... I think that the president has acted conservatively during this visit. I think that it will be proved that the president has made a mistake."
Another analyst, Harun Mir, said that Pakistan has always wanted a weak and instable Afghanistan and sought its eternity in violence and bloodshed in Afghanistan, adding that Pakistan is not honest to either Afghanistan or the USA.
Mir said: "We should have an assessment of Pakistan's relations with Afghanistan since its establishment in 1947. Pakistan and Afghanistan have always had unfriendly relations. Since the Afghan government did not accept and recognize Pakistan in the UN, the Pakistanis have sought conspiracies in Afghanistan and the issue of Pasthunistan was one of the main issues that threatened Pakistan's national interests. Since then, we have never observed that the relations between the two countries have been reviewed. Pakistanis have always sought a puppet government in Afghanistan. They have always wanted a weak central government in Afghanistan... Now, does the Afghan government have the ability to find a solution to problems facing the relations between the two countries?... I do not think that the president has this ability, as unfortunately the Afghan government has been suffering deficiencies in various spheres, particularly in its foreign relations or diplomacy. Now, the question is whether Pakistan, a country which has the ability to reject a superpower's, the American's demands, will act honestly towards Afghanistan."
He added: "The Pakistanis are still continuing their previous tactics. They have deceived us over the past 30 years... The USA is not able to do anything because when the USA puts pressure on Pakistan, Pakistanis have the ability to resist... Pakistanis show that Americans will no longer be crucial for them. Pakistan's interests can be ensured through China to some extent... Pakistanis are not ready to lose what they describe as strategic asset, the Taleban, in Afghanistan, even if the USA pressures them. Now, the question is how come a Pakistan, which rejects a superpower's demands, will welcome demands by a weak president. The Afghan president has become considerably weaker than he was at the beginning. Pakistanis have been pursuing previous tactics to have a weak government in Afghanistan."
Moradian shares this opinion, saying that Afghanistan's problems mainly stem from Pakistan and stressed the need to draw up a comprehensive strategy on Pakistan and form a stable and strong government with the ability to win public support.
He said: "Pakistan has been the main political and security problem of Afghanistan over the past few decades. Unfortunately, we have not succeeded in drawing up a long-term strategy on Pakistan. What is our opinion about Pakistan? Do we recognize the Durand Line officially? What do we think about the issue of Pashtunistan? How do we draw up our relations with India? We need to draw up a comprehensive strategy on Pakistan."
Moradian seriously opposed what he called the armed opponents of Afghanistan. He said that all of them, including the Taleban, are terrorists.
"First of all, we should not consider them the government's armed opponents. All of them are terrorist groups, because they do not fight only the government, but they mainly target the Afghan people. In addition to showing goodwill to Pakistan, we need to strive to strengthen our government, system and diplomacy. We should give priority to achieve some cards to negotiate with the Pakistanis. They will never negotiate with us until we have these cards."
Harun Mir also stressed the need to follow a transparent and comprehensive strategy on Pakistan and called on the Afghan government to specify Afghanistan's friends and foes. He accused the Afghan president of a policy of appeasement on Pakistan although, he said, it has evil and dangerous intentions about Afghanistan.
He said: "The Afghan government pursued a transparent policy on Pakistan in the past. The Afghan president had a very clear stance on Pakistan in the past. It has always said that war should be spread to areas where there are terrorists, meaning Pakistan. Now, the Afghan president is defending Pakistan's stance. This means the Afghan president has travelled to Pakistan at a time when the world is putting serious pressure on Pakistan. And this visit does not have any outcome. I can say with certainty that the Pakistanis have very evil and dangerous intentiona about Afghanistan and the Afghan president welcomes this intention. Now, the question is, as a united nation, why we do not have a clear foreign diplomacy. Why have we not succeeded in recognizing our friends and foes? We should have a very transparent foreign diplomacy and it should be based on Afghanistan's national interests. We should draw up our relations with others based on our national interests rather than political eternity, political observations or demands by some groups. These are selective foreign relations. Once we describe one as a friend and once as a foe. Today, if we do not take advantage of the present resources, we will never do so in future. Unfortunately, we do not have these resources forever. We may have them for three or four years more."
Moradi said that Afghanistan had many powerful friends in the world and region and it should solve its problems with the help of these countries. He described India as the best friend of Afghanistan and Pakistan as the main enemy of Afghanistan. Meanwhile, he stressed the need to establish strong cooperation with regional and neighbouring countries.
"The best friend of Afghanistan in the region is regional cooperation. We should expand cooperation with neighbouring and regional countries, particularly Pakistan, Iran and Central Asia... In particular, India is our best friend in the region. Afghanistan's national interests connect to the national security of India and to the fact that the Indians have never wanted a weak and restive Afghanistan. The formula shows that India is our best friend in the region. The USA is our friend. NATO is our friend. Turkey is our friend. Japan is our friend. So, we have many friends. Meanwhile, Pakistan is our main rival. Also, our interests clash with the Islamic Republic of Iran in some areas. We should have a strong and accountable administration to take advantage of these friendly ties. We should strengthen national partnership in the country. We need to remove gaps among political circles and the gap between the people and government in Afghanistan. Afghanistan with a weak administration will never succeed in having friends," Moradian noted.
He said Pakistan had launched a propaganda war against Afghanistan and always accused India of using Afghan soil against Pakistan.
He added: "In addition to India, Pakistanis have been complaining about the Northern Alliance [led by late Ahmad Shah Masud], Panjsheries [residents of northern Panjsher Province], this and that. So, all these are pretexts. We should not pay attention to what Pakistan says... We have always told our international friends that Pakistan should present evidence to prove its claims that India has been using Afghan soil against it. Fortunately, Pakistanis have never succeeded in presenting evidence. So, this is a propaganda war against Afghanistan. Fortunately, this propaganda war has lost its credibility now... Pakistan will leave Afghanistan when we have a strong government, an educated society with a serious and real political partnership."
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