As per a UN report, Al-Qaeda has been active across 15 provinces in Afghanistan with fighters both from inland and from foreign lands such as Central Asia, the north Caucasus region of Russian Federation, Pakistan and the Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region of China. The report submitted by the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) further goes to talk about the ‘unbreakable ties’ between Al-Qaeda and Taliban, while at the same time pointing the Pakistan-based, Al-Qaeda-Taliban nexus holding prominence over Taliban leadership. The US administration signed the peace agreement with Taliban in February 2020 in Doha and since then their prominence have only grown stronger, with Taliban, lately taking control of around 18 provinces in Afghanistan.
In a special interview with Chris Alexander, the author of “Ending Pakistan’s Proxy War in Afghanistan” and the former Deputy Special Representative to the United Nations Secretary General for Afghanistan between 2005 and 2009, the Afghan Diaspora Network (AND) discussed some of the discoveries of the UNSC report as well the root causes of ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan.
UNSC Report
Talking about the findings in the UNSC report, Chris completely disregards the presence of Al-Qaeda leaders living in Afghanistan Pakistan border areas. He firmly says that countless verified documents, journals and journalists have confirmed that Al-Qaeda has been based in Pakistan, since its inception in 1998. He further says that groups such as Al-Qaeda, Islamic states in Khurasan Province, Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the Haqqani Network, and other small splinter or leadership groups have always had a back channel with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which continues to act as a supply-chain headquarter to these groups. The authenticity of the Monitoring Report by UNSC also need to be questioned here as ISI officers have been part of the UN Monitoring team, which further raises question on its credibility and authenticity.
Pakistan’s Involvement
Talking about how Pakistan could face serious sanctions if their involvement is brought to surface, Chris says that the Pakistan state has been covering up press and censoring reports and even killing journalists, just to ensure that the UN reports don’t mention the reality. With the freedom of press a myth in Pakistan, the government understands the severity of sanctions that they could face just like Iran or even like that of Vladmir Putin. While, Iran faces political and economic sanctions for its engagement in proxy war in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen, Vladmir Putin still faces sanctions from countries for his invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Chris calls out for similar sanctions to be imposed on the Pakistan state. He adds that as far as the Pakistani people are concerned, most of them remain unaware of the covert war engaged by the government – a nation that grows poorer with every new decade and continues to run deeper into debts.
Talking about the association between Al-Qaeda and Taliban, Chris says that many of the fighters run across borders to earn a living from being proxy warriors for one side or the other. The ISI, over the last 20 years has been working with Haqqani group, who holds the brutality and willingness to carry out extreme violent killings. Haqqani group has been said to be closely associated with Al-Qaeda using it for a source of money and international military capacity. The designation of Sirajuddin Haqqani in Afghanistan by ISI as both principal leader of the Taliban military command and a major interlocutor for them with Al-Qaeda stands as a testament to this relationship.
US – Taliban Peace Deal
Commenting on the US – Taliban peace deal, Chris calls it a ‘disaster’. He says that the goal of ISI and Taliban was to get US and NATO troops out of Afghanistan through the peace deal, which eventually lead to the release of Taliban fighters, who went on to join the fight immediately. He says that the US treated Afghanistan as an issue of terrorism and withdrew on the condition that Afghanistan would never be used against the US and its allies. But it failed in ensuring that Afghanistan would function and prosper as a state and not pose as another threat over the next decade or so. Chris points that the Taliban would continue to fight and with the Afghan state resisting, it will be the innocent Afghan population who would be caught in the crossfire.
What The Future Holds
Chris believes that the focus now should on the relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, while targeting and bringing to light Pakistan’s role in organizing, funding and arming a proxy army to do its dirty works. Pakistan’s roles in various acts of terrorism and hiding terrorist leaders have been uncovered by international media in the past. He recalls an interview of the now fugitive president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, where he called ‘Pakistan as the Taliban’s enabler’. He reiterates the need for sanctions on Pakistan while accounting the upheavals in Pakistan’s politics.
While pointing towards a solution, Chris says an interim government in Afghanistan could be the solution if it leads to a change in Pakistani policy which could eventually lead to a ceasefire. He further adds that elections in Afghanistan could remain key to bringing peace to the region. Chris, firmly, negates the concept of power-sharing and calls it the wrong-approach, for a group of Taliban inside the government and another still armed shall only work as a short-term solution to the problem. Chris ends the interview by saying that he doesn’t see the military wing in Pakistan or the Pakistan state agreeing to a ceasefire or allowing a ceasefire. He calls upon UN and countries such as US and Germany and Russia to put pressure on Pakistan in order to stabilize the Afghan province.
