Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi has sharply criticised Pakistan’s demands during recent negotiations, saying Islamabad is attempting to blame Afghanistan for its internal security problems and is seeking guarantees that Kabul cannot logically provide.
Speaking in Kabul at the graduation ceremony of the Diplomacy Institute’s fifth training course, Muttaqi said Pakistan asked Afghanistan to guarantee that no terrorist incident would occur on Pakistani soil, a request he described as “neither logical nor feasible.”
“Pakistan demanded guarantees that there will not be a single incident of terrorism in Pakistan. Are we responsible for Pakistan’s security? Do we have peacekeeping forces there?” he said. “Is Pakistan the size of a district or a province? Providing security inside Pakistan is not our responsibility.”
Muttaqi said that while Pakistan accuses the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) of carrying out cross-border attacks from Afghan soil, it has also suggested moving TTP groups from Pakistan to Afghanistan — a contradiction he said exposes Islamabad’s lack of a coherent approach.
“Once you accuse us that TTP groups operate here, again you request us to transfer those groups to Afghanistan. You are deliberately escalating the problem,” he said. “Is Afghanistan crazy to transfer the problems of another country to its soil?”
The Islamist administration’s foreign minister also accused Pakistan of repeatedly violating Afghan airspace in recent years. “In the past four years, the Pakistani government violated Afghanistan’s territorial integrity several times. Kabul itself was violated. Ordinary people, our markets, our shops were bombed,” he said. “The Islamic Emirate had to respond.”
He said ISIS-K fighters were trained and transferred from Pakistani territory to Afghanistan and that Islamabad declines responsibility for cross-border infiltration despite building roads, checkpoints and surveillance systems along the disputed Durand Line.
“If they cross your cameras and checkpoints, how is Afghanistan responsible?” Muttaqi asked. “If they are in your territory, why don’t you control them?”
He said the Islamic Emirate entered negotiations “with good intentions,” but three rounds of talks held in Doha and Istanbul failed because Pakistan’s proposals were “impractical and unreasonable.” He said the Afghan delegation did not walk away from talks, insisting they collapsed due to Pakistan’s demands.
Muttaqi also criticised Pakistan’s domestic policies, accusing Islamabad of mishandling migrants and traders amid economic instability. “A country that calls itself a nuclear power uses this power against immigrants, expels them, blocks trade routes, and ties politics with commerce,” he said. “Its dispute is with TTP, but it creates problems for refugees.”
He dismissed the argument that attacks in Pakistan have increased since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. “When you attribute the increase in TTP attacks to Afghanistan, do you also attribute your war with India to Afghanistan? Your disputes with Iran? Your economic collapse?” he said.
Muttaqi said Afghanistan had facilitated trade, transit routes and attempted negotiations between Pakistan and the TTP, claiming that “90 percent of issues were resolved” before Pakistan “ruined the process again.”
He said Afghanistan had built “hundreds of security posts” along the border and spent large sums to address Pakistan’s concerns. “Afghanistan has fulfilled its responsibility. If anyone violates it after this, the responsibility will be on their shoulders,” he said.
The comments come after Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif announced that talks with Afghanistan had failed, warning of possible action inside Afghan territory if cross-border attacks resume. Turkey has since announced it will send a high-level delegation to Islamabad in an effort to ease tensions.