ISLAMABAD, MAR 5: Pakistan is seeking broad-based and longstanding ties with the United States under President Donald Trump’s administration, said Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar in a telephonic conversation with a top US official.
A statement issued by the Foreign Office on Wednesday said Deputy PM Dar received a call from the US National Security Adviser Michael Waltz on March 4 (Tuesday) wherein he conveyed President Trump’s appreciation and thanked the Pakistan government for efforts in countering terrorism.
The FO statement came hours after President Trump announced that the Daesh operative who allegedly planned the 2021 suicide bombing outside Kabul airport during the chaotic US military withdrawal had been arrested.
The bomber detonated a device among packed crowds as they tried to flee Afghanistan, killing 170 Afghans and 13 US troops securing the perimeter, days after the Taliban seized control of the capital.
In his first address to Congress since returning to the White House, Trump announced on Tuesday that Pakistan had assisted in the arrest of “the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity”.
The FO, in the statement, said FM Dar congratulated the NSA on his assumption of office and reiterated that Pakistan looked forward to building on its longstanding and broad-based relationship with the United States under President Trump and his administration.
He also reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to continue its cooperation with the US in the field of counterterrorism.
Dar also appreciated President Trump’s announcement to withdraw the US military equipment left behind in Afghanistan.
The two sides reaffirmed their commitment to enhance cooperation in IT, energy and mineral sectors, as per the statement.
“They also agreed on the need to have continued dialogues on trade, investment, climate change and health as part of a broad-based agenda in the days to come,” it added.
Who is Mohammad Sharifullah?
Mohammad Sharifullah, also known as Jafar, Sharifullah, is a leader of the Daesh Khorasan branch in Afghanistan.
The US has charged him with “providing and conspiring to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organisation resulting in death.”
The Justice Department said on Wednesday the operative admitted to FBI Special Agents “to helping prepare” for the attack, “including scouting a route near the airport for an attacker.”
“This evil ISIS-K terrorist orchestrated the brutal murder of 13 heroic Marines,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
Sharifullah also admitted to involvement in several other attacks, the Justice Department said, including the March 2024 Moscow Crocus City Hall attack in which he said “he had shared instructions on how to use AK-style rifles and other weapons to would-be attackers.”
In Tuesday´s speech, Trump took a swipe at his predecessor Joe Biden’s oversight of the “disastrous and incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan” and thanked Pakistan “for helping arrest this monster”.
The United States withdrew its last troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, ending a chaotic evacuation of tens of thousands of Afghans who had rushed to Kabul’s airport in the hope of boarding a flight out of the country.
Images of crowds storming the airport, climbing atop aircraft — and some clinging to a departing US military cargo plane as it rolled down the runway — aired on news bulletins around the world.
In April 2023, the White House announced that a Daesh official involved in plotting the attack at the airport´s Abbey Gate had been killed in an operation by Afghanistan´s new Taliban government.
‘Leverage US concerns’
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked Trump for “acknowledging and appreciating Pakistan’s role and support” in counter-terrorism efforts in Afghanistan.
“We will continue to partner closely with the United States in securing regional peace and stability,” he wrote on social media platform X.
Pakistan’s strategic importance has waned since the US and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has seen violence rebound in the border regions.
Tensions between the neighboring countries have soared, with Islamabad accusing Kabul of failing to root out militants sheltering on Afghan soil who launch attacks on Pakistan.
Daesh Kabul chapter, which has claimed several recent attacks in Afghanistan, has staged a growing number of bloody international assaults, including killing more than 90 in an Iranian bombing last year.
Michael Kugelman, South Asia Institute director at The Wilson Center, said on X that Pakistan was trying to “leverage US concerns about terror in Afghanistan and pitch a renewed security partnership.”
“Pakistan’s help catching the Abbey Gate attack plotter should be seen in this context,” he added.
