Pakistan Rejects Zalmay Khalilzad’s Allegation of Arming Afghans to Fight the Taliban

Pakistan’s Ministry of Information on Saturday rejected as baseless and misleading former U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad’s allegation that Pakistan was “arming Afghans to fight the Taliban.” The ministry’s fact-check account said on X that his broad, unsubstantiated claims merely repeated speculative narratives and reflected what it described as his personal agenda to support the Taliban government, which it accused of backing terrorism. The statement added that Khalilzad’s dissemination of unverified allegations exposed the partisan nature of his views.

The ministry stressed that conflating Pakistan’s legitimate counterterrorism operations against militant groups operating from areas under the Afghan Taliban government’s control and posing a threat to Pakistani citizens with allegations that Islamabad was recruiting Afghan nationals or sponsoring armed groups inside Afghanistan was particularly misleading. The response came a day after Khalilzad, who served as the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan during the first Trump administration, claimed on X that “there are many reports that Pakistan is arming Afghans to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan.” Khalilzad further alleged that Pakistan was now recruiting Afghans to fight anti-Pakistan insurgents, warning that relations between the two countries could deteriorate significantly.

In its statement, the ministry emphasised that Pakistan remained on the front lines of the fight against terrorism and had made immense sacrifices to protect regional peace and security. The ministry also pointed to successive monitoring reports issued by the United Nations documenting the continued presence and activities of terrorist organisations inside Afghanistan, including the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and al-Qaeda. It added that Khalilzad’s allegations conveniently diverted attention from the Afghan Taliban government’s responsibility to prevent its territory from being used for terrorist attacks against Pakistan by India-backed proxies.

Last November, Pakistan’s Ministry of Information criticised Khalilzad for creating a false impression that the Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS-K) militant group was present in Punjab. In March 2023, Pakistan’s Foreign Office strongly responded to a series of suggestions made by Khalilzad, stating that Pakistan did not need unsolicited advice on the challenges it faced. Khalilzad’s comments also prompted the U.S. State Department to clarify that the former envoy did not represent U.S. foreign policy and was not speaking on behalf of the administration of then-President Joe Biden.

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have remained strained over the past several years, as Islamabad has continued to express concern over cross-border terrorism. In September, the two neighboring countries experienced another round of tensions. Pakistan carried out calibrated airstrikes in border areas in response to terrorist attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This was followed by drone incursions from across the border, which Pakistan said it had intercepted, and two further rounds of retaliatory airstrikes.