Asif Durrani, Pakistan's special envoy for Afghanistan, confirmed that based on UN resolutions, the United States has been using Pakistan's airspace to attack targets inside Afghanistan.
Durrani urged Taliban officials not to complain about the issue to the Pakistani government.
This is for the first time that a senior Pakistani official has confirmed the use of the country’s airspace for the US’ over-the-horizon attack in Afghanistan.
After the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, the US targeted Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of the al-Qaeda network, and several other targets of the terror group in Kabul and Ghazni provinces.
The United States also conducts surveillance operations in Afghanistan's airspace. Taliban officials, including the group's defence minister, have said several times that Afghanistan's airspace has remained "occupied”.
The Taliban have publicly asked Pakistan to prevent the US unmanned aircraft from crossing that country's airspace into Afghanistan's airspace.
However, in an interview with "Pashto 1" TV channel, Durrani said that the UN resolution to suppress the al-Qaeda network has been applicable.
Pakistan's special envoy for Afghanistan said that the whole world is committed to the 1367 and 1373 UN resolutions. That’s why, he stressed that “we [Pakistan] should not be blamed”.
This senior Pakistani diplomat added that the same resolutions allowed the US to attack Ayman al-Zawahiri, the former leader of the al-Qaeda network in District 10 of Kabul, and Osama bin Laden, the founder of the terror group in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Durrani emphasised that the Taliban has not been a proxy force of Pakistan in Afghanistan. He stressed that "every Afghan is a free man”.
Officials of the former Afghan government accused the Pakistani government of being dishonest in the Afghan peace process and of supporting the Taliban to continue terror and insurgency in Afghanistan.
However, Durrani said, "The solution to Afghanistan's problem was not in the hands of Pakistan, but I ask them, what did you do for the interests of Pakistan? They facilitated India and another front appeared against us and India was giving money to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistani and Baloch fighters.”
