Appealing to UN

Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul has warned the UN Security Council that continued rocket attacks from across the border could worsen tense relations with Pakistan.

Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul has warned the UN Security Council that continued rocket attacks from across the border could worsen tense relations with Pakistan.
On Sep 20, addressing the 15-member Security Council, Rassoul said the unprovoked artillery barrage on border villages threatens “necessary bilateral cooperation for peace, security and economic development in our two countries and the wider region.”
Afghanistan has been calling for an immediate halt to the attacks, which have killed civilians, and displaced hundreds of people. Pakistan has accused Afghanistan of sheltering militants on their side of the border, particularly in Kunar province.
Can the UN Security Council stop the firing?
Political analysts are quick to point out that whenever the US has wanted a problem solved the Security Council has obliged, be it in Libya, Iraq or Iran.
Abdul Ghani Hashemi, who is also a journalist, accuses the UN Security Council of doing lip service when it comes to issues that do not concern the US and its allies. As an example he cites the case of Palestine. Regarding Afghanistan’s problem with Pakistan on the border, he thinks the most optimistic outcome of Foreign Minister Rassoul’s intervention in the UN would be that “Pakistan would be at least blamed, and we (Afghanistan) would have played by diplomatic rules.”
Hashemi lashes out at the US. “If this (artillery firing) is a game that US and Pakistan are playing together, the US will be silent at the UN. The UN has the right to decide (independently). If the US is silent it reveals (Washington’s) self-interest in friendship with Kabul. It would be obvious to everyone.”
The bombing in the eastern areas has been going on for a year and a half. Killid and Azadi Radio estimate at least 5,000 rockets have been fired by the Pakistan military.
After months of denying the attacks, when ISAF forces based in Kunar confirmed the firing, Pakistan owned up responsibility. Colonel Nooman Hatifi, in charge of public relations in Selab 201 army corps, told Killid rockets have hit the villages of Sur Kamar, Zor Kamar, Zor Barwal, Tarla, Koshte, Sorgul, and Bar Koshte in Dangam district, which is the worst affected in Kunar province.