Taliban-appointed prime minister meets with a top Pakistan politician in hopes of reducing tensions

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban-appointed prime minister met Monday with one of Pakistan’s most senior politicians in an attempt to reduce lingering tensions between the two countries, a spokesman for the Taliban government said.

Fazlur Rehman, whose Jamiat Ulema Islam party is known for backing the Afghan Taliban, is the first senior Pakistani politician to visit Kabul since the Taliban seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops withdrew from the country after 20 years of war.

The Pakistani delegation met with Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund in Kabul, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement.

Rehman’s party in a social media post confirmed the meeting. Rehman has no current position in Pakistan’s government, but he is close to the military.

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His visit comes less than a week after Mullah Shirin, the governor of Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, traveled to Islamabad and met with Pakistan’s caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani. They discussed issues including Pakistan’s ongoing expulsion of Afghans without valid documents.

During Monday’s meeting, the Taliban-appointed prime minister told the Pakistani delegation that the “Islamic Emirate will not allow anyone to pose a threat to any country.”

Pakistan is concerned about the presence in Afghanistan of the Pakistani Taliban, which is a close ally of the Afghan Taliban. Pakistan has said many Pakistani Taliban leaders and fighters have found sanctuary in Afghanistan and have been emboldened to carry out more attacks on security forces in Pakistan.

The Afghan Taliban government insists it does not allow the Pakistani Taliban to use its soil to launch attacks in Pakistan.

Monday’s Taliban statement quoted the head of the Pakistani delegation, Rehman, as saying the aim of his visit was to “remove misunderstandings between the two countries.”

Tensions also exist around Pakistan’s ongoing expulsion of Afghans.

Pakistan has deported more than half a million Afghans without valid papers in recent months as part of a crackdown on such foreigners. Pakistan has long hosted about 1.7 million Afghans, most of whom fled during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation. More than half a million fled Afghanistan when the Taliban seized power.

Monday’s statement quoted the Taliban-appointed prime minister, Akhund, as saying such “behavior does not solve the problems but leads to mistrust.”

In a separate meeting with the Pakistani delegation, the Taliban’s deputy prime minister for political affairs, Abdul Kabir, said the Taliban government seeks strong and respectful relations with countries, particularly Pakistan, and that such a commitment is based on mutual respect.

“Afghanistan’s land won’t be used against others,” Kabir was quoted as saying in a statement by the prime minister’s office. It said Kabir also sought more cooperation from Pakistan on issue of the expulsion of Afghans.