KABUL (Pajhwok): As the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) marks three years in power, analysts offer a mixed assessment of its foreign policy and overall performance.
While some commend the IEA’s focus on economic diplomacy and balance between major powers, others highlight significant challenges and areas requiring improvements.
Zabihullah Mujahid, chief spokesman for the interim administration, insists the caretaker government’s political and diplomatic efforts have been notably successful.
According to Mujahid, IEA has effectively managed numerous difficulties, established a broad diplomatic network and strengthened international relations despite not being recognised even by a single country.
Samiullah Ahmadzai, a political analyst, praises IEA’s foreign policy for its emphasis on safeguarding the national interest and economic position.
He commented: “The Islamic Emirate, in line with its sovereignty, is pursuing economic diplomacy in its foreign policy and this approach is not favourable for spy maneuvers.
“On that score, the Islamic Emirate has been able to prove itself independent, consistent and stable in its foreign policy priorities over the last three years.”
Independence is what Afghans want in every field and independent governments can muster the support of the masses, he believes, noting IEA has been successful in this area.
Ahmadzai says: “Also, the Islamic Emirate has been able to maintain a balance in relations with the major powers.”
On this front, he recalls, the previous governments had miserably failed. Therefore, stability eluded Afghanistan, he argued. “But the Islamic Emirate has preserved this balance, hence its stability.”
Foreign affairs analyst Zarghoon Shah Shinwari told Pajhwok over the past three years, IEA’s relations with the world had not been the same as they were before.
He sees IEA “in a circle of diplomatic deprivation”. Therefore, the Emirate has given priority to quantity in diplomatic relations due to its political compulsions, he says.
“If you look at the number of states that have relations with the incumbent government and the overall state of affairs, the thirst of Afghan officials and nation appears to be far from satisfied.”
Except for China, relations between Afghanistan and its neighbours have been manipulated by influential foreign countries in their interest and new disputes are springing up daily, he alleges.
Shinwari opines the neighbouring countries want to maintain relations with the caretaker government on critical issues, including basic assistance. This is the theory of meeting Afghanistan’s needs. We must pay attention to basic questions and infrastructure issues.”
He said IEA’s legitimacy issue is vital and critical to the extent that getting to its root cause required thinking but literally one could say that non-implementation of Doha Accord by both sides, absence of exclusive government, violation of human rights and ban on women education and work were the main reasons behind IEA non-recognition.
He said the point of concern is that there should not be another story behind the scene unless the IEA government is recognized, Afghanistan’s national independence, integrity, national and international identity, unity, trust, peace and independent foreign policy is under threat and questioned.
Aziz Maarij, former diplomat and international relations expert, said the IEA has filed in foreign politics in the past three years because IEA was unable to establish ties with the international community in line with international principles.
He said the IEA was unable to establish cordial relationship with the neighboring countries but some neighboring countries have established friendly ties with the IEA.
Maarij said the international community has presented their conditions, saying that if professional persons are appointed in the government, a constitution is introduced, human rights are respected and an inclusive government is formed, they will recognize the caretaker government of Afghanistan.
Officials of the acting Afghan government said that all people in Afghanistan were entitled to their rights in the famework of Sharia Law.
The IEA spokesperson recently regarding constitution said: “We are not facing a legal vacuum; Islamic Sharia is a very comprehensive law that defines the duty of each individual in the government and system, Islamic jurisprudence has discussed this and details are available.”
Political Affairs Expert Toryalai Himmat said IEA had an effective foreign policy towards foreigners, neighboring and regional nations in the past three years and it should be praised.
He said foreigners were unjust in the past three years because they did not recognized the IEA government although IEA had completed the required conditions for recognition which is a geography, nation, government and security.
He said Afghanistan relations with the neighbouring countries were also good but it was the neighouring countries that created problems.
He said: “The IEA has not yet been recognized because the world says that IEA has presented its fiscal budgets in the last three years with no sources, it has employees, has established security in Afghanistan, Afghanistan was the first in corruption, now it is the last, it was the first in insecurity, now it is the last in insecurity, the outsiders would not recognize this government because it is an ideal government and their people would also want such a government.”
Himmat said: “The caretaker government of Afghanistan, no matter what it does, the world does not recognize it, but the Islamic Emirate has an Islamic duty and the people have an Islamic, legal right to it, such as the opening of schools, the handing over of work to professional people, the appearance of Amirul Momineen, then the rest of the world is forced to recognize it, because now they say that people are angry with it, some are outside, some are in something, so that they solve their internal problems and let the people use their thinking, six hundred and seven hundred people used to die every day, every sister, every mother and wife was crying, now these catastrophe had gone and people should be thankful because the security that has come in these three years, the lives and property of all people are safe.”
Another political analyst Mohammad Asif Seddiqi says: “In general, the foreign policy of the IEA is heading into a negative direction because the situation in the country is worse and what the international community wants is the same what the Afghan nation desires.”
“The order to uphold merit is still to be done and schools above the grade six and universities are still closed for girls”, he said.
According to him, relatives of IEA officials are enjoying the positions and their living conditions are better than ordinary people who are in “worse condition” and this is the reason of the mass migration to other countries.
He said the caretaker government must address the problems of the people.
Idrees Zazai, another political analyst, said the foreign policy of the IEA was successful during the past two years as dozens of embassies of other countries were opened in Kabul and the embassies of Kabul were also active in some other countries. “This is a significant development for the newly established government.”
He said: “There are many theories about the recognition of a government, some say the US demands must be accepted for full recognition of the IEA, while others say what the nation wants should be accepted for the recognition of the IEA, but in general the US had been defeated in this country, in order to regain its prestige it delays the IEA recognition and so does not allow anyone take a step in this regard.”
To gain the recognition, the government of the IEA must take some steps inside the country because the international recognition was followed by domestic recognition. “Until it is not done, the international community does not show any interest to recognize the IEA government”.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the IEA spokesman, told Pajhwok: “Certainly, the diplomatic apparatus has shone well in political and diplomatic fields, it coped with many harsh situations and had been able to spread a wide diplomatic network in other countries, especially in the neighboring and Islamic countries. Of course, some countries that have not yet come to diplomatic interaction with Afghanistan, it is their problem, Afghanistan has tried its best and is still doing it.”
“The foreign policy of the IEA is applied through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), it is very successful and still does what it can do”, Mujahid added.
To address people’s problems, Mujahid did not specifically said anything, but before this, he had several times said that the government of the IEA was trying to address of the problems of the people and accept their demands in the light of Sharia law.
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