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From the Newspaper | Ismail Khan
PESHAWAR, Nov 1: A senior American diplomat in Pakistan said on Thursday the United States recognised the Durand Line as an international border and if Afghanistan had any other interpretation, “that’s certainly their business”.
“The existing border is recognised as an international border. Now if the government in Kabul has other interpretation, that’s certainly their business,” Richard E. Hoagland, US Deputy Chief of Mission in Pakistan, said at a media roundtable here.
Mr Hoagland was responding to a question on Kabul’s rather angry reaction to US Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman’s, comments on the border which Afghanistan has long considered a contentious and un-resolved issue.
Durand Line draws its name from Mortimer Durand, the Foreign Secretary of British India, who demarcated the 2640-kilometre-long and porous borders between Pakistan and Afghanistan following a treaty with Afghanistan’s Amir Abdur Rehman Khan in 1893.
The joint survey team took two years to complete and covered some 800 miles of the borders.
Pakistan as a dominion to the British India inherited the treaty which Afghans believed was imposed on them through coercion.
The Afghans say the treaty — a single page containing seven clauses, was written in English which late Amir Abdur Rehman Khan could neither read nor understand. Pakistan says the border between the two countries is a settled issue and not opens to discussions.
“Look, this is not the Line of Control. This has been recognised as an international border for a long time. I understand that certainly Kabul may have a different point of view and they are certainly well within their right to explain their point of view,” Mr Hoagland maintained.
From the Newspaper | Ismail Khan
PESHAWAR, Nov 1: A senior American diplomat in Pakistan said on Thursday the United States recognised the Durand Line as an international border and if Afghanistan had any other interpretation, “that’s certainly their business”.
“The existing border is recognised as an international border. Now if the government in Kabul has other interpretation, that’s certainly their business,” Richard E. Hoagland, US Deputy Chief of Mission in Pakistan, said at a media roundtable here.
Mr Hoagland was responding to a question on Kabul’s rather angry reaction to US Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman’s, comments on the border which Afghanistan has long considered a contentious and un-resolved issue.
Durand Line draws its name from Mortimer Durand, the Foreign Secretary of British India, who demarcated the 2640-kilometre-long and porous borders between Pakistan and Afghanistan following a treaty with Afghanistan’s Amir Abdur Rehman Khan in 1893.
The joint survey team took two years to complete and covered some 800 miles of the borders.
Pakistan as a dominion to the British India inherited the treaty which Afghans believed was imposed on them through coercion.
The Afghans say the treaty — a single page containing seven clauses, was written in English which late Amir Abdur Rehman Khan could neither read nor understand. Pakistan says the border between the two countries is a settled issue and not opens to discussions.
“Look, this is not the Line of Control. This has been recognised as an international border for a long time. I understand that certainly Kabul may have a different point of view and they are certainly well within their right to explain their point of view,” Mr Hoagland maintained.
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