Rubio says US hears Pakistan's concerns over attacks from Afghanistan and offers a 'productive role' at G20 talks in Atlanta
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in Atlanta that Washington has heard Pakistan's concerns about terrorist attacks sponsored from Afghan territory and would play a productive role if it can help, as Islamabad renewed its criticism of the Afghan Taliban.
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Washington has heard Pakistan's concerns about terrorist attacks originating from Afghan territory and does not want Pakistan to be targeted by terrorism, adding that the United States would play a productive role if it can help. He made the remarks in Atlanta on Saturday, at the conclusion of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting, in answer to a question about tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“Pakistan is concerned about terrorist attacks that are being sponsored from the territory of Afghanistan. They feel that the Taliban is not doing enough to constrain those attacks, and they've taken action against it,” Rubio told reporters. “We obviously have heard those concerns on their part. We obviously don't want them to be targeted by terrorism,” he added, saying: “So, if there's a productive role for us to play, we would play it.”
Rubio also set out the limits of Washington's own channel to Kabul, saying the United States does not have particularly close relations with the Taliban authorities. He added that the United States is against terrorism no matter where it originates and no matter whom it targets, and that it had seen some of the attacks cited by Pakistan. His comments were reported by Dawn, Geo News and other outlets covering the Atlanta meeting.
The remarks came against the latest flare-up along the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier. Pakistan's state-run Radio Pakistan reported on Friday that Afghan Taliban forces opened fire in the Angoor Adda area of South Waziristan on 27 October, describing the firing as unprovoked. Pakistan then carried out retaliatory strikes against Afghan Taliban border posts and military installations, according to reports of the exchanges in South Waziristan and Parachinar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Afghanistan's Defence Ministry offered a contrasting account. In a statement on 28 October, it accused Pakistan of initiating the confrontation, alleging that Pakistani personnel carried out four drone strikes targeting the Angoor Adda market and a commission in Afghanistan's Paktika province around noon on 27 October. The two accounts have not been reconciled in public reporting, and each side has blamed the other for starting the latest round of firing.
Islamabad renewed its criticism of Kabul on Saturday, in a statement from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting rejecting remarks by Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid. The ministry accused the Taliban leadership of shifting blame to Islamabad while ignoring what it called the central issue undermining bilateral relations: terrorism emanating from Afghan soil. It said Pakistan would not tolerate terrorist sanctuaries across the border and reserved the right to take all necessary measures under international law to protect its national security.
That statement also described the Taliban regime's continued refusal to address terrorism as the principal obstacle to normal relations, saying Pakistan's security would not be held hostage to what it called the regime's inaction, evasions or misplaced priorities. Islamabad has repeatedly urged Kabul to take verifiable action against militant groups, particularly the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which Pakistani officials accuse of operating from Afghan territory to plan and organise attacks inside Pakistan.
The Taliban authorities have denied allowing militants to use Afghanistan as a base for attacks against Pakistan. That denial has been a recurring point of disagreement: Pakistan points to cross-border attacks and to the presence of fighters it says are sheltering in Afghanistan, while Kabul rejects the charge and accuses Pakistan of violating Afghan territory. The gap between those positions has kept the border dispute at the centre of the relationship even when direct fighting pauses.
Rubio's intervention matters because it puts Washington publicly on record as acknowledging Pakistan's complaint, without itself adjudicating the disputed facts of the latest border incident. An offer of a productive role is not a mediation commitment, and Rubio did not set out any timetable, format or conditions for American involvement. It does, however, signal that the United States is willing to be drawn in if both sides see a useful opening, at a moment when regional diplomacy around the wider Middle East conflict is already crowded.
What happens next will depend first on whether the frontier stays quiet after the latest exchanges, and second on whether Kabul responds to the American remarks with any new statement on militant groups operating from its territory. A further response from Pakistan's government, a clarification from Washington about what a productive role might mean in practice, or a fresh border incident would each change the picture. For now, the significance of the Atlanta remarks lies in their timing: a public American acknowledgement of Pakistan's concerns, delivered as the G20 meeting closed and as Islamabad was pressing its case against Kabul in unusually blunt terms.
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