Pakistan FM threatens to not shake hands with Afghanistan NSA over 'brothel house' remark

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi lashed out at Afghanistan's National Security Advisor for allegedly calling the former's country a 'brothel house'. Shah Mehmood Qureshi's remarks come a month after Afghanistan's NSA Hamdullah Mohib allegedly made the remark during a public speech in Nangarhar province nearly a month ago. Asking NSA Hamdullah Mohib to listen carefully, the Pakistan Foreign Minister threatened him that no Pakistani would shake hands if the former did not desist himself from making such remarks & levelling accusations.

Pakistan FM lashes out at Afghanistan NSA for calling former a 'brothel house'

As per ANI, Pakistan has conveyed to Afghanistan that it would no longer conduct official business with NSA Hamdullah Mohib due to his outburst against Islamabad. A statement issued by the Pakistan Foreign Ministry called the NSA's allegations baseless and added that such remarks undermine trust and mutual understanding between Islamabad and Kabul. Qureshi said that Pakistani officials from the prime minister to the army chief to the foreign minister had visited Kabul for peace yet the NSA had still likened Pakistan to a "brothel house".

"You should be ashamed and you should be guilty at your words and my blood is boiling ever since your speech in Nangarhar," he added.

"Correct your behaviour and reflect on it. I say this to the international community that if this behaviour continues, then this person, who calls himself the national security adviser of Afghanistan, will actually be playing the role of a spoiler [for peace]."

President Biden in April announced that all American troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan by September 11 this year, thus bringing to end the country's longest war, spanning across two decades. The US and the Taliban signed a landmark deal in Doha on February 29, 2020, to bring lasting peace in war-torn Afghanistan and allow US troops to return home from America's longest war. Under the US-Taliban pact, the US has agreed to withdraw all its soldiers from Afghanistan in 14 months.

There are currently 2,500 American troops left in Afghanistan, the lowest level of American forces in the war-torn country since 2001. Since the US-led invasion that ousted the Taliban after the September 11, 2001 attacks, America has spent more than USD 1 trillion in fighting and rebuilding in Afghanistan. About 2,400 US soldiers have been killed, along with tens of thousands of Afghan troops, Taliban insurgents, and Afghan civilians.