Due to the best efforts of Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the 17th extraordinary session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) is taking place to figure out how to save Afghanistan from a humanitarian catastrophe.
The OIC is a strong and cohesive bloc of 57 Islamic countries, with Saudi Arabia playing a key role in handling the reins, and most of the member countries under the Kingdom are instrumental in decision-making. Four decades ago, Pakistan held a similar meeting on Afghanistan.
The extraordinary session has been convened under Article 10 of the OIC Charter. Pakistan is highlighting the plight of vulnerable Afghan people since the Taliban took over to save Kabul from humanitarian crisis.
Pakistan is well aware of the fact that deaths due to hunger and poverty have started to occur in Afghanistan. Such a situation could not only be a precursor to civil war in Afghanistan, but could also create a strong possibility of destabilizing the country. Our officials know that such a humanitarian catastrophe will not only lead to an influx of Afghan refugees but will also allow terrorist groups to flourish in Afghanistan and Islamabad will be affected as before.
Today’s meeting of the OIC, which is about to begin, is a ray of hope. The key significance of this meeting is that in addition to the OIC members, representatives of other powerful countries and institutions of the world will also participate as observers.
Apart from the important P5 countries, representatives of other EU influential countries will also attend the meeting. This will be the first time that the representatives of decision-making countries, who are not members of the OIC, will hear the Taliban’s compulsions from their interim foreign minister and other officials.
Therefore, it is hoped that talks with the Taliban by other countries, other than the OIC members, will help improve the climate of mistrust, and these countries would gradually become more flexible in their demands to the incumbent Afghan regime.
The new Afghan regime is currently struggling for the country’s survival, and in such a case, immediate assistance and reinstatement of Afghanistan’s assets are crucial. If the international community failed to do so, a situation may arise in Afghanistan which may cause trouble to its neighbours. Meanwhile, terrorist groups will again flourish in Pakistan that could pose a threat to the rest of the world.
In the region, on the one hand, Afghanistan’s lava is on the verge of erupting, on the other hand, the meeting on Iran’s nuclear deal has been held again today in Geneva. The more complex and dangerous situation here is that the Israeli Minister of Defense and the head of the Israeli agency are trying to convince the United States that the only way to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power is to take military action against it.
Moreover, Israel’s military is capable of attacking Iran, but Tehran has also gradually increased its military strength, which includes modern missiles. Iran’s areas where nuclear issues are advancing have been secured to such an extent that even a country like Israel would have difficulty in destroying them directly.
Attempts are now being made to re-sign the nuclear deal, which was broken in 2018, as is evident from this joint statement. This was followed by a visit by the US Secretary of State to South Asia and the Middle East, in which Antony Blinken suggested that Iran was pursuing its own goals and was obstructing re-entry into the Nuclear Accord. In this regard, the United States, together with its allies, is paving the way for how to deal with Iran.
Since the failure of all these negotiations has almost come to light, on the one hand, it seems that the United States, Israel, and the Gulf states are paving the way to deal with Iran. While Tehran, on the other hand, has reached the point of completing its sleeper cells, which are spread across the Gulf. If attacked by Israel, Iran would certainly be able to damage all of the targets and installations that are so important to the United States and the Gulf.
Other countries in the region will also be affected by this tug-of-war, and it remains to be seen to what extent China and Russia can assist Iran in this regard. It seems that China and Russia will not shy away from indirectly supporting Iran.
In this regard, the regional and international situation is not going much better. The Government of Pakistan will have to discuss these issues at other international forums in order to not only alleviate the tension and deteriorating situation in the region, but also to prevent the heat from reaching Pakistan, which is a very difficult task.
Translated by: MM News Editorial Team
