Pakistan, Afghanistan, US Agree On Anti-Taliban Ops

Pakistan, Afghanistan and the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force have agreed to launch a trilateral operation against Taliban on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border, a senior Pakistani official said Friday.



"It will be a coordinated trilateral operation launched jointly by Pakistan, Afghanistan and ISAF on both sides of the border," Pakistan's National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz told The Anadolu Agency's Turkish service in an exclusive interview.



Aziz, who also holds the portfolio of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's adviser on foreign affairs, said the three sides agreed to inform each other of future targeted operations against Taliban.



The proposed operation would be launched on the basis of intelligence sharing between all sides, he added.



Aziz ruled out the possibility of "hot pursuit" by either side that would breach Pakistan or Afghanistan's sovereignty.



"There will no hot pursuit by Pakistani or Afghan forces. When we launch a targeted operation on our side of the border, we will inform them, and when they do that, they will inform us," he said.



Aziz did not say exactly when or where the proposed operation would take place.



A senior foreign office official told AA on condition of anonymity that the decision was taken recently during Pakistan Army Chief General Raheel Sharif's meeting with his Afghan counterpart, and ISAF Commander-General John Campbell in Kabul.



General Sharif flew to Kabul a day after a gun-and-bomb terrorist attack on an army-run school in northwestern Pakistan's Peshawar city killed over 140 people, mostly students, on Dec. 16.



"The army chief informed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, and top Afghan army and ISAF commanders that the terrorists were in constant touch with their militant leaders based in Afghanistan through mobile phones during the carnage," the official said.



The official said the Pakistan army chief called on the Afghan leadership to take immediate action against the Pakistani Taliban leadership based in Afghanistan, including Mullah Fazlullah who allegedly operated from Kunar province.



The Afghan leadership reportedly assured the Pakistan army chief that Afghan soil would not be allowed to be used by Pakistani Taliban group.



Afghanistan and Pakistan have had rocky relationship in the last few years with both sides accusing each other of patronizing certain Taliban groups on their soil.



However, relations improved recently following the election of Ghani as president of Afghanistan.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Ankara