Taliban conflicts with Pakistan; Reasons and future prospects
Mehr News, International Group: Relations between the Taliban and Pakistan After the fall of the national government, Afghanistan has been tense. Although Pakistan was the most important regional supporter of the Taliban in 2004-2021, but since the beginning of this year, the conflicts between the two sides in Khost and Paktika provinces in eastern Afghanistan have increased and turned into a crisis in the relations between the two sides.
Pakistan and Taliban relations
Pakistan has been mentioned as the most important regional supporter of the Taliban since the 1990s and at the same time as the emergence of the Taliban. General Hamid Gul, the former head of the Pakistan Intelligence Organization, who was named as one of the most important supporters of the Taliban, said in an interview in 2011: “We created the Taliban and For now, we consider them the saviors of freedom.” In a 2013 report, Bruce Rydell, a leading expert at the Brookings Institution, wrote: “There is no doubt that Pakistan and its intelligence service have more influence on the Taliban than any other country or intelligence service. Pakistan supplied the oil needed to launch the Taliban’s war machine; All this was despite the resolutions of the Security Council, which asked all countries to stop helping the Taliban.”
Pakistan, along with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, were the only countries that recognized the Islamic Emirate of the Taliban in Afghanistan as the legal government of Afghanistan in the late 1990s. A NATO study published in 2012 based on the interrogation of 4,000 captured fighters of the Taliban, al-Qaeda and other groups in Afghanistan indicated that the support of the ISI was very important for the survival and revival of the Taliban after 2001.
During the last two decades, the main problem of the Afghan authorities with Pakistan has been over the country’s support for the Taliban. Imran Khan, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, tried to make efforts to reconcile Afghanistan with the Taliban during the Ashraf Ghani era. The fragility of relations between Pakistan – America also provided conditions for the Taliban to strengthen their bases on the border with Pakistan. This played an important role in consolidating the power of the Taliban after the withdrawal of the American forces.
The reasons for the conflict between the Taliban and Pakistan
Taliban saw the support of Pakistan as long as it was active as an opposition group to the government; But in the last few years, when Afghanistan has been on the seat of power, some of its positions have created a conflict with Pakistan.
Expulsion of Afghan refugees from Pakistan
According to the statistics of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Pakistan currently hosts about 3.7 million Afghan refugees. 1.7 million of them are illegal. During the previous government of Afghanistan, two countries tried to work together to formulate practical policies and effective solutions for the return of Afghan refugees. But from the end of 2023, Pakistan decided to deport illegal immigrants. In November 2023, Pakistan will receive more than 540,000 Afghan migrants forced to leave this country. The government of Islamabad started the second phase of this plan by returning 800,000 Afghan refugees without documents from June 30, 2024. Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani called the deportation of refugees un-Islamic.
Border dispute between two countries
Government of Pakistan since 1896 border with so-called Afghanistan It recognizes the “Durand Line” as the international border between the two countries. But this border has not been accepted by any of the Afghan governments and is only considered as a hypothetical line. With the aim of stabilizing this border, since 2017 by taking advantage of the unstable atmosphere of Afghanistan, Pakistan installed fences and barbed wire and created minefields along the border and ignored Afghanistan’s official protest. -color: white”>
Noorullah Nouri, Acting Minister of Borders, Ethnic and In February 2024, the Taliban tribes during a visit to the Torkham crossing between Jalalabad, Afghanistan and Peshawar, Pakistan emphasized that Afghanistan does not have an official border with Pakistan and there is only an imaginary line between the two countries. What is certain is that the Taliban have not yet accepted the Durand Line as the official border with Pakistan. Pakistan also considers this approach as a challenge to its strategic depth.
Taliban support from Tehreek-e-Taliban group
Another field of confrontation between Pakistan and the Taliban is the Taliban’s support for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan is a coalition of militant groups that was established in 2007 after Pakistan’s military operation against Al-Qaeda-linked militants in the tribal areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The number of members of this group is estimated at 35-30 thousand people. Tehreek-e-Taliban’s stated goal is to overthrow the elected government of Pakistan in order to establish an emirate based on its interpretation of Islamic law. This group has tried to destabilize Pakistan by directly attacking the Pakistani army and assassinating politicians. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan is related to “participation in financing and arming al-Qaeda” according to 5 resolutions of 1989 of the United Nations.
According to the researches of Pakistani research centers, since the Taliban came back to power, TTP attacks against Pakistani positions have increased by 50%. Between September and May 2022, this group has carried out more than 170 terrorist attacks in different parts of Pakistan, killing dozens of Pakistani soldiers and civilians. Since the beginning of the Taliban in 2021, Pakistan asked this group to prevent the activities of Tehreek-e-Taliban in Afghanistan. A period of ceasefire was also established between the two sides; However, the attacks of Tehreek-e-Taliban continued on Pakistan during the ceasefire period. Taliban leaders rejected Pakistan’s concern about this and considered it an internal problem of Pakistan.
Atlantic Council think tank wrote in a report about this: There is no quick solution to reduce the tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The fact is that the Taliban will continue to support this group by using the TTP to increase its influence in Pakistan, and this will lead to more and more darkening of the relationship between the Taliban and the Pakistani government.” Expansion of attacks TTP A main reason for Pakistan’s attacks on Afghan soil in recent days is
On the one hand, Islamabad is under intense internal pressure to fight terrorism, and on the other hand, requests for Dealing with this group has been neglected by the Taliban. This has led to the escalation of the conflict on the border of Afghanistan after Pakistan’s attack on the positions of this group, and simultaneously with the attacks of Pakistani fighters and helicopters on Afghanistan, the Taliban forces also intensified their attacks on Pakistan’s positions.
The result and future prospects
The recent conflicts between the Taliban and Pakistan are rooted in issues such as the expulsion of Afghan immigrants from Pakistan, the border dispute between the two countries, and the Taliban’s support for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Taliban group. In this situation, it seems that the Taliban is willing to maintain its relationship with the Tehreek-e-Taliban to balance with other terrorist groups, including the ISIS of Khorasan, which are active in this country. Pakistan, in order to respond to the pressure of its internal public opinion and by using the ineffectiveness of the Afghan army, opens the way to continue limited attacks on the border areas using the air force. Taliban is trying to confront Pakistan with its military force. The international variable affecting these developments is the future American government.
Some Taliban officials announced in Aban 1403 that they are looking for a new chapter of relations with the Trump administration and asked the future Trump administration to respond to this and Return the frozen foreign exchange reserves of Afghanistan. Since US administrations, including the previous administration of Trump, had tense relations with Pakistan, Islamabad is worried that Trump’s return will affect the Taliban’s power. At the same time, conflict with Pakistan is problematic for Afghanistan in the long run.
Afghanistan, as a landlocked country, needs neighboring countries, including Pakistan, to gain international legitimacy, increase foreign trade exchanges, receive foreign aid, etc. . Pakistan also needs the influence of the Taliban to negotiate with the Tehreek-e-Taliban and end the differences. Both parties must take the approach of negotiation and resolving disputes.
Sajad Moradi Kalardeh; Researcher of international relations
