ISLAMABAD – Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Wednesday informed theSenate that the United States (US) had hinted that its peace deal withTaliban would not be mere a peace of paper but to be presented in UnitedNation Security Council (UNSC) for endorsement.
Giving a policy statement in the Senate on the US-Taliban peace deal signedin Doha on February 29, he said Pakistan was never a part of the deal. “Ourrole has always been and will always be that of a facilitator,” he said.
He said it was totally inappropriate to place all the responsibility onPakistan and we could not take all the responsibility for peace inAfghanistan.
“This is a shared responsibility and all stakeholders will have to playtheir role in this regard, he said.
Qureshi said many powers, interests and motives were involved and now truetrust of the Afghan leadership had begun. “Can they rise to the occasionand chart a peaceful way forward or not; only time will tell,” he said.
He said the peace deal signed in Doha was a first major step and the nextstep was the intra-Afghan dialogue.
This opportunity should not be missed and both the sides should moveforward besides demonstrating flexibility in order to get the desirableresults, he said.
Read Top Stories
He said this process would not be easy at all but Afghanistan and itspeople would suffer if it failed.
He reminded that the war of two decades did not give anything to the Afghanpeople as war was not a solution to any problem.
The foreign minister said Pakistan had played a role of facilitator betweenAfghanistan and the US over the peace pact. “We are not guarantor rather weare facilitator,” he added.
“People of Afghanistan have desire of peace and their leaderships will haveto come up to the expectation of people” he added.
