Pakistan warns of attempts to derail Afghan peace deal

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Affairs Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi congratulated the Taliban and the US leadership over signing of historic Afghan peace deal, but he cautioned all the parties to beware of the spoilers.

“We cannot neglect it. Spoilers are there, both in Afghanistan and outside Afghanistan. All of you will have to keep strict vigilance on those spoilers,” the foreign minister was quoted by state-run news agency APP as saying at a press briefing after his return from Doha.

The FM represented Pakistan in the signing ceremony of Afghan peace deal in the Qatari capital.

Qureshi said that he interacted with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and had called for devising a mechanism to identify and blame and shame the spoilers who would play any negative role.

He said after the peace deal, it was test of the Afghan leadership as whether they would show flexibility and take decisions beyond their own interests.

He said the leadership coming from various countries had lauded Pakistan’s facilitative role in the peace process even those who used to criticize Pakistan in the past.

Qureshi said he also asked Pompeo to maintain the positive momentum to keep the peace process moving through different confidence building measures like the release of prisoners as had also been committed in the agreement.