New York (January 20, 2018): At the United Nation, in a forceful rebuttal of US accusation of terrorist ‘safe havens’ on Pakistan’s soil, Pakistan’s Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi told the UN Security Council that envisioning that these sanctuaries lie outside Afghanistan need a reality check.
This she stated during a debate on building regional partnership in Afghanistan and Central Asia in New York.
US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan said the US cannot work with Pakistan if it continues to give sanctuary to terrorist organisations and need to stop this and join efforts to resolve the Afghan conflict.
She said the United States need to address the challenges inside Afghanistan rather than shifting the onus for ending the conflict onto others.
She also said that any strategy that continues to rely on military force was delusional as it would produce more violence, not a political solution.
The ambassador said after seventeen years of war, it is more than evident that neither the Afghan government and its military partners, nor the Afghan Taliban are in a position to impose a military solution on each other.
Maleeha Lodhi said we called on the Taliban to abandon the path of violence and join talks.
While hitting back the Indian Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin’s allegation about Pakistani mindset of promoting cross-border terrorism, Maleeha Lodhi said those who talk of changing mindsets need to look within, at their own record of subversion against my country as our capture of an Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav has proven beyond doubt.
The ambassador said Pakistan has fought and defeated terrorism within Pakistan, and its counter-terrorism campaign, deploying a two hundred thousand strong force, has turned the tide of terrorism.
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