ISTANBUL –Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Friday reiterated USsystematic withdrawal from Afghanistan to prevent what happened back in the90s.
Speaking with a Turkish news agency at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, Qureshisaid the withdrawal of US troops should be carried out in a responsibleway. Adding that ‘If the US withdrawal is not systematic, we are concernedthat war torn Afghanistan may get sucked into the situation that weexperienced in the 1990s when there was anarchy, civil war, and instability.
Foreign Minister, who is on a three-day trip to Turkey nowadays, said‘Afghans have paid the biggest price and second to the Afghans are thePakistanis. We lost 83,000 lives on account of terrorism. Our economy hassuffered close to over $128 billion.’
He opined that Pakistan could only facilitate the process, but theownership and the responsibility now lie on the Afghan leadership sayingthat they had to sit together and decide on their future.
Read Top Stories
‘Pakistan has always been very comfortable with Turkey’, he responded toTurkish forces taking over a security role in Afghanistan as the USwithdraws from the country. ‘I would like to know how Turkey is foreseeingthe future. Turkey is an important regional power. We hold meetingsregularly, he further added.
Underlining that Turkey and Pakistan have similar views on this issue, hesaid there is a rising trend of hate speech, discrimination, and targetingof Muslims in the West. We collectively feel that we need to combat thisgrowing menace, Qureshi added.
