China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said at an official press briefing that representatives of China, Afghanistan, and Pakistan held an informal meeting in the city of Ürümqi from 1 to 7 April. He added that the two sides agreed to explore a comprehensive solution to the conflicts and to refrain from any action that would escalate or complicate the situation. China, he said, has also committed to remain in close contact with both countries and to provide a venue for continued dialogue.

The Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Afghanistan says the following points should be noted:

Border tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan are rooted in American policies. In some theatres—such as Iran, Lebanon, and Yemen—the United States is directly at war with Muslims; in other theatres, it conducts this war through its puppets. In Afghanistan’s case, this war is being led by Pakistan’s rulers. The war’s main objective is to put pressure on the current system in Afghanistan and to keep Pakistan’s army engaged against Afghanistan, so that the conditions are created for India to grow in the region against China. Through this policy, the United States pursues two aims at once: preventing the emergence of Islamic rule in the region, and creating an obstacle to China’s influence.

With deep regret, it must be said that Pakistan’s rulers—within the framework of the nation-state order—are willing to play a mediating role to rescue the United States and the Jewish state. Yet when they are faced with Muslims, they turn to China and are unwilling to sit directly with their own Muslim brothers. This is precisely the deviant nature of nationalist nation-state systems; friendship and enmity, war and peace, arbitration and sovereignty—all of it is weighed according to the concept of the “nation” and its interests. Islam, by contrast, rules that the foundation of the state and politics must be built fully and comprehensively upon Islamic creed, not on the basis of national or ethnic interests.

Afghanistan’s rulers, too—having turned to China’s arbitration—must understand that China, as the host of these meetings, has never been neutral and cannot be neutral. China is a belligerent and occupying state that has occupied East Turkestan and has pursued there a policy of systematic erasure, severe repression of Uyghur Muslims, and the destruction of Islamic values. Thousands of mosques have been demolished; scholars have been imprisoned; women and children have been placed under intense pressure; and the Islamic identity of this region is being destroyed. How can such a government be a neutral mediator in Muslim affairs?

Beyond its occupation of East Turkestan, China also has specific objectives in our region; economic colonization through the “Belt and Road” projects; access to Afghanistan’s rich mineral resources; and a security priority of preventing any threat to its interests. China’s communist regime is deeply alarmed by the emergence of any genuine Islamic authority in the region. This regime shares the view of the rulers in Islamabad on suppressing Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, and one of the main priorities of its foreign policy in the Muslim world is the pursuit and suppression of Uyghur people. So how can Afghanistan’s and Pakistan’s rulers make China their arbiter, when the true arbiter and sovereign authority in disputes among Muslims is Allah Most High and His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him)?

Rulers must therefore understand that playing in the “nation-state” arena is, in reality, the trampling of Sharia values and rulings in governance, war and peace, arbitration and adjudication—and it hands over their arbitration to taghut. Yet they do not take lessons from the recent events of the Muslim world: in the hearts of enemies there is nothing but hatred and enmity toward Islam and Muslims, and a “jurisprudence of weakness” (fiqh al-istid‘af) ends in nothing but slavery or collapse. Accordingly, Allah (swt) ruling and the guidance of the Messenger of Allah (saw) is that those who hold power must establish and consolidate the Khilafah Rashidah (Rightly Guided Caliphate) —because this immense obligation is the source of honor, the embodiment of strength, and the guarantor of the Ummah’s true independence.

[يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُوا الرَّسُولَ وَأُولِي الْأَمْرِ مِنْكُمْ فَإِنْ تَنَازَعْتُمْ فِي شَيْءٍ فَرُدُّوهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَالرَّسُولِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ تُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ ذَٰلِكَ خَيْرٌ وَأَحْسَنُ تَأْوِيلًا]

“O you who believe! Obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you. And if you dispute over anything, refer it back to Allah and the Messenger, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day. That is better and more fitting in outcome.” [Surah An-Nisa:59]

[وَإِن طَائِفَتَانِ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ اقْتَتَلُوا فَأَصْلِحُوا بَيْنَهُمَا فَإِن بَغَتْ إِحْدَاهُمَا عَلَى الْأُخْرَىٰ فَقَاتِلُوا الَّتِي تَبْغِي حَتَّىٰ تَفِيءَ إِلَىٰ أَمْرِ اللَّهِ فَإِن فَاءَتْ فَأَصْلِحُوا بَيْنَهُمَا بِالْعَدْلِ وَأَقْسِطُوا إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ الْمُقْسِطِينَ]

“And if two groups among the believers fight, then make peace between them. But if one of them transgresses against the other, then fight against the one that transgresses until it returns to the command of Allah. And if it returns, then make peace between them with justice and act equitably. Indeed, Allah loves those who act justly.”]Surah Al-Hujurat:9[