Jan 4, 2022: Taliban Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said the recent incidents along the Durand Line between Afghanistan and Pakistan had “created a need for authorities on both sides to address the issue,” adding that the issue will be “resolved through diplomatic means.”

“The IEA believes in resolving issues through understanding, dialogue and good neighborliness, and will resolve this issue through diplomatic channels,” he said in a Twitter post on Tuesday. On Monday, Pakistan’s foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, acknowledged that there were “some complications” with the issue.

IEA believing in addressing problems through understanding, talks and good neighborliness, will address this issue through diplomatic channels.

— Abdul Qahar Balkhi (@QaharBalkhi) January 4, 2022

The foreign minister said the matter was being discussed with the Afghan Taliban government, blaming “some miscreants” for blowing the whole matter out of proportion.

Earlier this week, a video circulating on social media showed some soldiers grabbing a spool of barbed wire. Last month, Reuters reported that Taliban fighters in Afghanistan had disrupted a security fence erected by the Pakistani military on the border between the two countries.