By Arul Louis
United Nations, Jan 17 (IANS) Afghanistan's leaders have asked the Security Council to mobilise international pressure on Pakistan to stop supporting terrorists, United States Permanent Representative Nikki Haley said on Wednesday.
Meeting reporters here after the Council's weekend visit to Afghanistan and meetings with the nation's leaders, Haley said: "They asked for consensus on international pressure to get Pakistan to change its behaviour" in supporting terrorists.
"As long as there is support for terrorism in Pakistan, the Afghan community does not feel safe," she added.
Council President Kairat Umarov, who led the mission, said, "Security Council members noted with concern the persistence of insecurity, especially the "intensification of terrorism activities in the north ans east of Afghanistan and the regrouping of foreign terrorist fighters coming out from Syria and Iraq."
Asked about the Afghanistan leadership's reactions to the US freezing security aid to Pakistan because it provides safe havens to terrorists, Haley deferred to Umarov.
Without going into the details, he said, "It was also part of the discussion. I would just like to underline that the discussions were more on the positive side."
Echoing President Donald Trump, Haley asserted that the "US policy on Afghanistan is working".
On Tuesday, Trump said that his South Asia strategy is "working far more rapidly than anybody would understand" in denying safe havens for terrorists in Afghanistan.
During the three-day visit from Saturday to Monday, Council members met Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, other officials, NGOs, representatives of political parties and the leaders of the US-let NATO mission there.
This was the first visit of Security Council to Afghanistan in about seven years. The last visit was in June 2010.
The latest visit came ahead of a high-level Council meeting on Afghanistan on Friday to be presided over by Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov. Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani and ministers of other countries are also expected at the meeting.
Haley said that the international community should support the peace process in Afghanistan because it is not just about that country and the region,"but it is about safety in the world" in containing terrorism.
She said that the US was not against the Afghan leaders having peace talks with the Taliban.
"What is most important that the US wanted to see is an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led policy," she said. "And what was impressive is that the Afghan leadership is taking responsibilitya they don't ask us for things, they tell us what they want."
(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)
