Link: IS suspect arrested in Pakistan Embassy attack in Kabul
In December, a member of IS (the Islamic State, or Islamic State in Khorasan Province, a militant group) was arrested as a suspect after a shootout at the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. The attack occurred while the top Pakistani diplomat in Kabul was walking through the embassy, and while he was unharmed one of his guards was wounded. The group, a rival of the Taliban government in Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for the attack, calling the Pakistani diplomat a “renegade”. One of the two suspected shooters was arrested by Afghanistan’s Taliban government (which was established in 2021, parallel to the US’s withdrawl from the country) and the chief spokesperson made a statement announcing that the suspect was a foreign national working with other rebel and anti-taliban groups in Afghanistan, and that IS was attempting to create tension between the “two brotherly countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan”.
This situation presents new developments in the middle east, as Afghanistan and Pakistan find themselves in a situation they have not faced in decades. After the US withdrew its troops from the region in 2021 after 20 years of war, a new government was instituted in Afghanistan, formally the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, and although the presence of foreign troops has been lifted, the tension has not. The region is going through a period of restructuring, and this event illustrates the deep cultural divides that will continue to be disputed in the future, as they are so deeply ingrained in the culture and history of the Middle East that it is highly unlikely that they will melt away with the absence of war with the US. As the region, specifically countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan, continue to shift in government and politics, events like these will continue to bring violence and division.
In International Relations, we have discussed the presence of areas with high levels of instability and interest, called shatterbelts. The Middle East Shatterbelt is one of those main regions in the current world, but due to the dynamic nature of global structuring and trends, this could shift in the future. This sentiment is especially strong since the US recently withdrew troops from the region, hinting that the US doesn’t have quite as much national interest in the area as it used to. However, the Middle East is still in a state of instability, which can be seen from this violence at the Pakistani Embassy in Afghanistan. Various groups with a wide range of beliefs and a common desire for power are continuing to destabilize the region with violent acts, which plays into the Middle East’s role as a shatterbelt.