Reuters: As hostilities between Pakistan and Afghanistan continue along the border, United States President Donald Trump has said that Washington will not intervene in a possible conflict between Islamabad and Kabul. Trump said he could step in but stressed that he has “very good relations” with Pakistan. He further said Pakistan has a great prime minister and a great military leader, adding that they are two people I have a lot of respect for.
The neighbouring countries entered an “open war” after Pakistan retaliated with full force after the Taliban regime resorted to unprovoked firing along multiple sectors in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), including Chitral, Khyber, Mohmand, Kurram, and Bajaur on Thursday night. In their retaliatory attacks named Operation Ghazab lil-Haq (Righteous Fury), Pakistan’s armed forces destroyed several key Afghan Taliban posts, while the PAF conducted strikes in Kandahar, Kabul, and Paktia, causing heavy losses on the Afghan side.
As many as 12 security personnel embraced martyrdom and 27 sustained injuries during the retaliatory response, while 331 Afghan Taliban have been killed so far, as per Pakistani authorities. The US president, who has repeatedly boasted about ending several wars across the globe, said on Friday that he would not step into the latest ongoing conflict when asked whether the United States would intervene.
Trump said he could step in but stressed that he has “very good relations” with Pakistan. He talked highly of the Pakistani leadership.“Well, I would (intervene), but I get along with Pakistan, as you know, very well. Very, very well. You have a great Prime Minister, you have a great general there, you have a great leader, two of the people that I really respect a lot,” he told reporters. He further said he believes Pakistan is moving forward very strongly, signalling that Washington does not intend to interfere.
US supports Pakistan’s ‘right to defend’
The US said it supported Pakistan’s “right to defend itself” against attacks from the Taliban regime after Islamabad said earlier that the neighbouring countries were in “open war.
“Afghanistan’s rulers had said on Friday they were willing to negotiate after Pakistan bombed their forces in major cities.”The United States supports Pakistan’s right to defend itself against attacks from the Taliban, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group,” a State Department spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
The State Department spokesperson said Washington was aware of the escalation in tensions and “outbreak of fighting between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban,” adding the US was “saddened by the loss of life.””The Taliban have consistently failed to uphold their counterterrorism commitments,” the State Department said, adding that “terrorist groups use Afghanistan as a launching pad for their heinous attacks”. The recent escalation of tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan follows Pakistan’s retaliatory actions in response to suicide bombings in Islamabad, Bajaur, and Bannu, all of which were traced back to militants based in Afghanistan.
Islamabad, which has repeatedly urged Kabul to prevent its soil from being used by terrorist organisations to carry out attacks, conducted intelligence-based strikes targeting seven terrorist camps and hideouts belonging to Fitna al Khawarij (FAK) — a term used for the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — its affiliates and the Daesh-Khorasan, along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border last week. Prime Minister’s spokesperson for Foreign Media, Mosharraf Zaidi, has said Afghan Taliban authorities had allowed militant groups to operate from their soil by providing what he described as safe havens.
Talking to the foreign media on Friday, he argued that the alleged patronage of such groups by Taliban leadership constituted a breach of commitments made under the Doha Agreement.
The two countries agreed to a ceasefire in October 2025 when the Afghan Taliban regime opened unprovoked gunfire at several border points. The Afghan forces’ firing was aimed at helping Khawarij formations cross the border into Pakistan.
Islamabad, however, back then had agreed to an initial ceasefire at Kabul’s request. The countries then later reached a ceasefire deal in Qatar, which was mediated by Doha and Turkiye. Under the agreement, terrorism from Afghanistan on Pakistani soil was to be stopped immediately.
The two sides then further held follow-up discussions in Turkiye which did not deliver the desired results due to stubbornness from the Afghan side, as Kabul used the Istanbul talks to malign Pakistan rather than address Islamabad’s core concern of terrorism emanating from Afghan soil.
