US says working to prevent Afghanistan from becoming militant threat for countries like Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The United States said on Thursday it was working to prevent Afghanistan from turning into a hub of militant violence targeting its interests or posing a threat to other states like Pakistan, following a recent United Nations report expressing concerns over the rise of armed groups under the Taliban administration in Kabul.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks since November 2022, when a fragile truce between its government and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) broke down. Pakistani officials blamed the interim Afghan Taliban government for facilitating the group and urged it to take action against the armed militants, though Kabul rejected Islamabad’s claims.
The UN report, released this week, raised similar concerns about groups like TTP and Daesh, noting that they were launching cross-border attacks, particularly in Pakistan.
Asked about its findings and the claim that these groups had over 6,000 fighters attacking Pakistani soldiers and undermining regional peace, US State Department’s Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel highlighted his country’s counterterrorism efforts.
“We’re working to ensure that Afghanistan never serves as a launching pad for terrorist attacks against the United States or our allies,” he said during a media briefing. “We are taking a whole-of-government approach to our Afghanistan counterterrorism efforts.”
“We are cooperating with partners and allies, including in the immediate region,” he continued. “And we’re working vigilantly to prevent the re-emergence of external threats from Afghanistan, including by working with partners to counteract terrorist recruitment efforts as well.”
Patel agreed with the findings of the UN report, saying that Daesh had the “ambition and capacity to launch international terrorist attacks.”
Afghanistan was widely viewed as a hub of transnational militant groups, particularly during the years leading up to the US invasion in 2001 and throughout the subsequent two decades.
US forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021 after securing an agreement with the Taliban in February 2020, which stipulated that the war-torn country would no longer be used as a militant basecamp.
In recent months, Washington has raised concerns about militant presence in Afghanistan, expressing its willingness to assist Pakistan with counterterrorism efforts.