Taliban govt making all-out efforts to ensure that Afghan soil is not used against any country: Muttaqi

The Taliban-led government in Kabul was making all-out efforts to ensure that its soil was not used against any country, Afghanistan's acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said on Friday. Muttaqi, who is leading a 20-member delegation on a three-day visit to Pakistan, expressed the views while addressing a seminar at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad.

Muttaqi on denied the presence of anti-Pakistan elements in his country, assuring that the Taliban-led government was making all-out efforts to ensure that Afghan soil was not used against any country, the Dawn newspaper reported.

Muttaqi said that Afghanistan's soil is not being used against Pakistan.


"Currently, there are no anti-Pakistan elements present in Afghanistan," he was quoted as saying by Geo News.

Muttaqi's comments came a day after senior officials from the US, China, Russia and Pakistan on Thursday called on the Taliban to sever its ties with all international terrorist groups and to deny space to any militant organisations operating inside the country while taking steps to form an "inclusive and representative" government in Kabul.

The extended Troika meeting of the special Afghan representatives of the four nations in Islamabad reviewed the latest situation in Afghanistan and said it expected that the Taliban will fulfill their commitment to prevent use of Afghan territory by terrorists against its neighbouring countries and the rest of the world.

During the seminar, Muttaqi also confirmed that the interim government in Kabul had facilitated talks between the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terror group and the Pakistan government.

However, he refrained from elaborating on the role of Afghanistan's acting Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, who used to head the dreaded Haqqani network - the most violent faction of the Taliban - in the negotiations.

The TTP, commonly known as Pakistani Taliban, is a banned militant group based along the Afghan-Pakistan border. It has carried out a number of major terror attacks across Pakistan and reportedly been using Afghan soil to plot terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

Earlier this week, Pakistan's Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry announced that a complete ceasefire had been reached between the government and the TTP. At the same time, Chaudhry had said that the interim Afghan government had facilitated the negotiations - a claim reiterated by the TTP itself.

Muttaqi, on his first visit to Pakistan since the hardline Islamists took control of Afghanistan in mid-August, expressed the hope that talks between the two sides would be extended and welcomed the ceasefire reached between the Pakistan government and TTP.

"We hope that the temporary ceasefire agreed between the Pakistan government and TTP will lead to permanent peace," he added.