Pakistan’s defense minister, Khawaja Asif, has issued a strong threat, declaring that the country does not require to employ even a fraction of its full arsenal to completely obliterate the Taliban regime and push them back to the caves for hiding, following the collapse of peace talks in Istanbul. The failure to reach an agreement came after deadly border clashes between the two sides, with dozens killed in the worst violence in the region since the Taliban seized Kabul in 2021.
The peace negotiations, which initially wrapped up in Istanbul, Turkey, without a ‘workable solution,’ according to Pakistan Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, came after the bloodshed along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The clashes, which resulted in numerous casualties, represent the worst violence in the area since the Taliban took control of Kabul in 2021. The talks were mediated by Turkey and Qatar, but they could not find common ground on the core issue of the Taliban allegedly using Afghanistan as a base for attacks on Pakistan’s security forces.
Both countries blamed the other for the talks falling apart, with Pakistan’s information minister accusing the Taliban of playing a ‘blame game.’ The Afghan side, according to an Afghan source, claimed it had no control over the Pakistani Taliban, a separate terror group that Pakistan says operates without consequences from inside Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban launched attacks against the Pakistani military in recent weeks, with the clashes beginning earlier this month after Pakistani air strikes targeted the head of the Pakistani Taliban in Kabul and other locations.
The Taliban retaliated with attacks on Pakistani military posts along the length of the 1,600-mile border that remains closed. Pakistan’s defense minister expressed concern that the failure to reach an agreement in Istanbul would mean ‘open war.’ Despite a ceasefire between Pakistan and the Taliban, clashes over the weekend resulted in the killings of five Pakistani soldiers and 25 Pakistani Taliban members near the border with Afghanistan.