Pakistan minister warns of ‘open war’ with Afghanistan if peace talks fail

The Pakistani defense minister has warned of “open war” if efforts to reach a recent ceasefire agreement between the two nations are unsuccessful. Officials from Pakistan and Afghanistan have met in Istanbul for discussions.

The discussions, which started on Saturday and are scheduled to continue on Sunday, come just days after Qatar and Turkey brokered a truce in Doha to put an end to neighborly deadly clashes. Difficulty number of people were killed and hundreds more were hurt in the cross-border violence.

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From Sialkot, in eastern Pakistan, on Saturday, Pakistan’s defense minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif declared, “We have the option, we have an open war with them,” if no agreement is reached.

However, he continued, “I saw that they want peace.”

Sinem Koseoglu, a reporter from Istanbul, claimed that the “technical-level discussions” in Turkiye are intended to “open the door for a permanent solution between the two neighbors.”

Pakistan has not disclosed the names of its representatives, despite Haji Najib, the deputy interior minister of Afghanistan, leading the delegation there.

The negotiations must address “the threat of terrorism emanating from Afghan soil toward Pakistan,” according to a spokesperson for Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday.

Pakistan has claimed that Afghanistan, including the Pakistani Taliban (TPP), is home to what it calls “terrorist groups.” Kabul refutes the claim and points to the military strikes as a result of Islamabad’s inaction.

Following the recent fighting, key border crossings between the nations are still closed, with the Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimating that traders are still losing millions of dollars each day because of the ongoing closure.

A key topic of discussion during the Istanbul talks will be intelligence-sharing with armed groups, according to International Crisis Group analyst Ibraheem Bahiss, who is an analyst in Afghanistan.

Pakistan would provide the location of TTP fighters or commanders, he said, and Afghanistan would be expected to carry out strikes against them instead, he said.

The ceasefire that was declared in Doha last Sunday is still in effect.

According to Tahir Andrabi, a spokesman for the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, “there hasn’t been any significant, full-scale terrorist attack emanating from Afghan soil in the last two to three days.”