KABUL - The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) on Monday distanced itself from the border clash in the Goshta district of Nangarhar province, saying Afghanistan and Pakistan could take the issue to the United Nations.

The fire exchange that involved light and heavy weaponry began at around 8:30am after Pakistani forces started reconstructing a security gate that was razed in the previous border skirmish in the Goshta district.

A security official in Nangarhar told Pajhwok Afghan the skirmish ended at about 11am when the Pakistani troops retreated. He claimed four Pakistani posts were destroyed and all military equipment and weapons inside the posts had been gutted.

Addressing a news conference in Kabul, a spokesman for the NATO-led force called the border tension a bilateral issue between the neighbors and that ISAF was in no way involved in it.

Brig. Gen. Gunter Katz suggested the two countries should talk out such disputes whenever they occurred. He explained the two sides could take their spat to the UN and the Security Council had strategies to resolve such problems.

The German general added: "ISAF decision by the UN Security Council, arrived in Afghanistan to fight terrorism security and our mission is focused inside Afghanistan."

"Under the UN Security Council’s decision, ISAF has come to Afghanistan to fight terrorism and enforce security. Our mission is confined to Afghanistan," he elaborated, maintaining they could not directly intervene in the matter that was to be taken up by the trilateral commission.

His stance was endorsed by the NATO senior civilian representative’s spokesman, Dominic Medley, who said the entire international community desired peace and stability in the region.

“The Tripartite Commission, the UN Security Council, etc are the ways diplomatically that any issues between two sovereign countries should be dealt with. No one wants to see any escalation of the situation. And that is the natural way for this to proceed,” he remarked. (Pajhwok)