ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday again pleaded with the international community against isolating Taliban regime.

Speaking at a media conference at the Foreign Office after a meeting with his visiting Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel Albares Bueno, Mr Qureshi said: “In my view the best way forward is international engagement as opposed to international isolation.”

Taliban’s isolation, he said, will have “consequences” not just for Afghanistan and the region, but also for the rest of the world.

Some countries have indicated that they are willing to work with Taliban on certain matters like humanitarian assistance and evacuation of their citizens as well as those Afghans who had worked with them in the past.

Spanish FM rejects impression West imposing conditions to provide aid to Afghanistan

Others are not ready to engage with them out of concern about their hardline views and fears that Afghanistan can once again become a breeding ground for terrorism.

Mr Qureshi said the world would have to adopt a “new approach” to Afghanistan.

He said the approach of “intimidation”, “pressure”, and “caution” had not worked.

“We need to incentivise positive outcomes,” the foreign minister said, recalling that a day earlier the Taliban had allowed foreign nationals to leave Kabul on board the first international flight since the completion of withdrawal of US forces.

He noted that the world was “not in a hurry” to recognise Taliban and was watching the unfolding events in Afghanistan.

“They haven’t shut their minds, they have an open mind but they’re saying our decision will be based on your (Taliban) policies and actions. They have announced certain benchmarks,” he said.

Jose Bueno, the Spanish foreign minister, rejected the impression that the West was imposing conditions for provision of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.

Pakistan and Qatar had on Thursday urged world powers not to make aid for Afghanistan conditional.

“I don’t think they have talked about conditions. No one has done it. Asking for freedom of movement for those who have collaborated with us and who want to leave Afghanistan or asking for humanitarian assistance to be delivered or seeking better security conditions is not imposing conditions,” he maintained.

He said it was “normal” to ask for it and there was nothing “outrageous” about it.

“It is just setting a framework in which we can have operational contact and be able to deliver humanitarian assistance,” he added.

Foreign Minister Bueno later called on Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Mr Khan said the changed reality in Afghanistan required a change in the world community’s outlook as well.

The prime minister said urgent measures were required to address the humanitarian needs of the Afghan people and to ensure economic stability of the country.

He called for positive engagement of the international community to ensure that the security situation in Afghanistan stabilised, peace was preserved, and any exodus precluded.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2021