Five Years of NATO

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Former Ambassador to Afghanistan, Rustam Shah Mohmand, and former DG of the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad and Security Analyst, Shireen M. Mazari, spoke in a seminar on “Five Years of NATO in Afghanistan: Implications For the Region” on August 22, 2008. Former Secretary General of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan, Akram Zaki chaired the meeting.

Activity: Public Seminar
Speakers: Rustam Shah Mohmand, former Ambassador to Afghanistan; Shireen M. Mazari, former DG of the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad and Security Analyst.
Chair: Akram Zaki, former General Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, GoP

Mr. Rustam Shah Former Ambassador to Afghanistan, Rustam Shah Mohmand, and former DG of the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad and Security Analyst, Shireen M. Mazari, spoke in a seminar on “Five Years of NATO in Afghanistan: Implications For the Region” on August 22, 2008. Former Secretary General of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan, Akram Zaki chaired the meeting

Addressing the session, said that time had shown that the intentions behind international intervention in Afghanistan were not confined to the stated objectives of so-called war on terror launched in the aftermath of 9/11. The US and its allies rather wished to establish and maintain a long-term presence in the region.

“Seventy-two thousand foreign troops supported by fifty thousand Afghan troops and a similar number of Afghan police have failed in achieving their goals”, he maintained. He said that the US invaded Afghanistan with its own objectives including dismantling an Islamic state, establishing a base to influence the CARs, containing Iran to minimize the presumed threat to the integrity of Israel and countering the emerging power of China.

Talking about the implications of NATO’s presence in the region for Pakistan, Ambassador Shah said, “It has caused destabilization, insurgency, lawlessness, frustration among the local people and above all growing anger and separatist sentiments within the country notably in Frontier and Balochistan provinces”.

Rustam Shah maintained that the presence of NATO was meant for stabilization and reconstruction of Afghanistan but it did the diametrically opposite, adding “The amount of opium production has increased manifold, and multiethnic groups have not only emerged but spread across Afghanistan which deepened the polarization of the country.”

Shireen M. Mazari, former DG of the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad Ms. Shireen Mazari raised question over the legitimacy of NATO operations in Afghanistan as it was a collective defense organization mandated to work only within the North Atlantic boundaries and substantiated her claim by referring several clauses of the UN and NATO charter. She pointed out that the foreign interference in Afghanistan was not the result of 9/11 incidents; this intervention had its roots in the scenario emerged soon after the collapse of the USSR.

“Disintegration of USSR and 9/11 incidents invited the attention of those countries that have bigger political and economic interests in the region, which have been exerting their pressure and influence over the state of affairs in the beleaguered country,” she said while arguing that the presence of NATO was for redrawing the region and getting hold of the energy resources in the guise of war on terror.

Concluding the session, Mr. Akram Zaki said that increasing insurgency both in Afghanistan and Pakistan was a direct result of foreign intervention and continued presence of coalition forces in the region. He observed that there was an unrelenting

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Five Years of NATO

Five Years of NATO

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