Pakistan and the Taliban: a relationship with potential fallout

The satisfaction of Pakistani leaders that the Taliban have broken the chains of slavery is yet another confirmation of how Islamabad is an unreliable country in the fight against terrorism and an ally with very different purposes than the United States. This is not new news, but which takes on a different significance with the fall of Kabul in the hands of radical Islamist forces. The support of the secret services of Pakistan has been continuous and constant and parallel to the fight waged with Washington against Al Qaeda, but the time has come to clarify, both within Islamabad and the United States, the relations of mutual collaboration and the future. relations between the two countries. The White House owes it to its own country, but also to its Western allies, who have always followed their commitment in Afghanistan, with the present threat of the Pakistani attitude; certainly the danger to be assessed is that of leaving too much space for China in Pakistan, in the event of worsening of relations: but this is a risk to be calculated, also to put Beijing in crisis, towards which the Pakistani attitude, in the Afghan question, it will certainly not change. However, it is also necessary to carry out an analysis within Pakistan itself, which, as the first and most immediate problem, is facing a huge exodus of refugees fleeing Islamic extremism, after having experienced significant improvements, thanks to the American intervention. ; this aspect is closely linked to the probable international grievances due to the lack of respect for human rights, discrimination against women and the proximity to radical and violent Islamist groups. These considerations must necessarily be present in the assessments that Islamabad must make towards the cost and benefit ratio, relating to the relationship with the Taliban, which is considered strategic in an anti-Indian function: an Afghan government favorable to Pakistan, in this perspective, it is considered extremely functional to the interests of the country’s geostrategic policy; however, this has allowed the development of a Pakistani Taliban movement, judged by various analysts to be a possible factor of national destabilization, precisely because of the increased power of the Afghan Taliban. The impression is that Pakistan has lost control over a phenomenon that it believed it knew how to control and which now forces the government to make concrete reflections, both on relations with the new Afghan order, both on internal problems and on the dialectic with the United States. Regarding the tribal origin of the Afghan Taliban, it should be noted that the Pashtun component is in the majority, but it is also very present on Pakistani territory. The issue alarms, and not a little, Islamabad’s other main allies, as well as, of course, the aforementioned United States; Saudi Arabia and China concretely fear the export of terrorism, which has already spread beyond the region with the expulsion of the Taliban from the Afghan government in 2001. The real fear is that the enthusiasm for the Taliban’s seizure of power in Afghanistan, it can act as a stimulus for radical Islamist groups operating in other countries; hence the probable pressure from Beijing and Riyadh on Islamabad to prevent the support of the new Afghan power for armed groups with potential targets outside the borders of Kabul. It is clear that these pressures can materialize in economic measures, capable of putting a country with serious deficits on its economic data in great difficulty. For all these reasons, the enthusiasm for the Taliban conquest of Kabul and the Afghan country was officially contained, so much so that an official recognition of the Taliban was carried out, on which the definition of a terrorist group remains by the United Nations. The government of Islamabad, regarding the recognition of the Taliban, seems to be oriented towards a consultation that will have to include, not only the regional powers of the country, but also the international authorities. Beyond these considerations, which seem vitiated by hypocrisy, the role of Pakistan remains central to the influence of the new government in Kabul, when it has been able to form it, but above all in relations with the Taliban and, consequently, on the relations that Islamabad will be able to do. have with the entire international community.