The ministry reportedly said Wednesday that, during the talks – held at Murree, a mountain resort town near Islamabad – it was “agreed that for lasting peace in the region, each side would approach the process in sincerity and with full commitment”.
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The meeting in Pakistan is set explore the possibility of holding formal negotiations, along with potential dates and discussion topics for any peace talks, he official said. “A delegation from the High Peace Council of Afghanistan has traveled to Pakistan for negotiations with the Taliban”, read a statement posted on Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s official Twitter account.
Meanwhile, its fighters continue with their summer offensive in Kabul, where twin suicide attacks targeted a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation convoy and an Afghan intelligence office.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ended its combat mission at the end of December, leaving Afghan forces to battle the resurgent Taliban on their own.
An Afghan delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai is in Islamabad to negotiate the prospects of a peace process in a war-torn Afghanistan directly with representatives of Afghan Taliban – an initiative jointly facilitated by Pakistan and China.
The airstrike came after a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a vehicle near a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation auto in Kabul, injuring three people.
It comes amid a wave of violence in Afghanistan, much of it blamed on the Taliban. It is unclear if the Taliban’s Qatar office was involved in the process. But those attitudes are thought to have been in flux since December, when the Pakistani Taliban, an offshoot of the Afghan group, carried out a gruesome attack against a school in Peshawar.
Rahimullah Yousufzai, a Pakistani journalist and Taliban expert, told AFP it was an “important development” but warned the process was still at a very early stage.
The president has sought Pakistan’s help in bringing the Taliban to negotiations, since it is a traditional ally of the group.
The U.S.-led military coalition said there were no fatalities.
Kabul: A senior Afghan official has accused Pakistani helicopters of airdropping weapons to the Taliban militants in the troubled southeastern part of Afghanistan.
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Kaswar KlasraWednesday, July 08, 2015 – Islamabad-Amid serious efforts from Pakistan’s side, government of Afghanistan and Talban have agreed to hold talks in a bid to give peace a chance in Afghanistan.
