The interview of Pakistani national security adviser Moeed Yousuf recently sparked controversy.
Islamabad:
The latest interview with Moeed Yousuf, Pakistan’s national security adviser (NSA), sparked controversy after it was stated that the security chief suggested the risk of the “second 9/11” if Western countries do not recognize the talibans.
However, in a statement released later Sunday, the Pak NSA Office asked ‘The Times’ to withdraw what they called a “frivolous” interpretation of Yusuf’s interview with journalist Christina Lamb.
The Pak NSA office said the story titled “Working with the Taliban or Repeating the Horror of the Nineties, West Told,” published in The Times on August 28, 2021, misinterpreted Dr. Moeed’s interview Yusuf of the NSA.
In the Times interview, Yusuf had said, “Mark my words. If the mistakes of the 1990s and the abandonment of Afghanistan are made again, the result will be absolutely the same: a security vacuum full of undesirable elements that will threaten everyone, Pakistan and the West “.
Pak’s NSA office described the story of the British publication as a “mis-characterization” of the conversation that took place between journalist Lamb and Yousuf.
“At no time did he claim that the West should ‘immediately recognize’ the Taliban, as the article states. There was also no ‘warning’ of a second 9/11 related to the formal ‘recognition’ of the Taliban.” Yousuf’s office said in a statement, Radio Pakistan was quoted as saying.
This controversy comes when many experts and most Afghans believe that Islamabad is behind the aggressive Taliban advance against government forces in Afghanistan and that Islamabad has been helping the terrorist group on all possible fronts.