Malik seeks US conciliatory role to prevent regional conflicts

ISLAMABAD: Former Interior Minister and Chairman of the Institute of Research and Reforms (IRR) Senator Abdul Rehman Malik called on the United States to play a conciliatory role in ending hostilities in the region to prevent another serious conflict.

“The United States has created battlefields in other countries and it is necessary to end it because the wars have caused human losses not only to the occupied countries but also to the American troops,” he said while talking with The News on Friday.

Malik said that despite US troops’ pullout, the people of Afghanistan are still suffering and a slow transition is making it worse which is further complicating the Afghan issue while Pakistan is a constant victim of this conflict.

“We feel that Americans should have ended this conflict by resolving the issue of Afghanistan for good after the Doha agreement, but it seems that Americans have not yet finished this agenda as hostility is growing with each passing day at the cost of peace of this region” he added.

He expressed that the US is not returning Afghan money despite being fully aware of the fact that people there are starving and the suffering Afghan people need humanitarian support.

The former Interior Minister said that the world has a question as to why the US doesn’t concentrate on clearing its multi-trillion debt rather than spending trillions of dollars to become a party in others’ wars, sitting far off from the self-created battlefields?

He said that as of now, the US controls about 750 bases in at least 80 countries worldwide with active combat deployments in Iraq and Syria and spends more on its military than the next 10 countries combined.

He said that over the past 20 years alone, the US has spent $8 trillion on its so-called “global war on terror”, which accounts for $2.3 trillion in Afghanistan alone, $2.1 trillion have been spent on the Iraq, Syria wars, and $355 billion attributed to other wars.

Rehman Malik said the US, as a world power, should use its influence and help in resolving issues like Afghanistan, Kashmir, and Palestine and the issues having similar dimensions.

He said that Kashmir is under illegal occupation of the Indian Army which is committing unhindered brutalities against oppressed Kashmiris without fear and has never allowed human rights bodies to visit the Indian Illegally Occupied Kashmir.

He questioned will the US ever use its influence in the UN to end the miseries of Kashmiris?

He said the US may convince and help India withdraw its forces from Kashmir and allow them to have the right to self-determination.

He further said that Pakistan assisted US soldiers in Afghanistan and previously fought against the Soviet Union which derailed not only our economy but we also had to face Jihadists imported by the US that turned out to be terrorists in the form of Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups like the TTP.

He expressed that we are now smelling another sponsored war with Daesh and TTP and watching some foul play in this region which needs to be tackled for regional peace.

He said the region will get into more trouble if the world fails to recognise the Taliban government, otherwise, Afghanistan will become once again a hub of international terrorists, giving an excuse to another war on terror to strike against this upcoming hub of terrorists.