Mr. Aziz said the objective of Monday’s meeting was “to define the overall direction of the reconciliation process… with a view to create a conducive environment for holding direct talks between the Afghan government and Taliban groups”. Sartaj Aziz said Pakistan values its brotherly and neighbourly relations with Afghanistan.
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Pakistan will present a list of Taliban willing to negotiate with Kabul at a four-nation meeting this week aimed at reviving the Afghan peace process, an Afghan official said yesterday. But in the end, the biggest decision that appeared to be reached was to meet again.
“Military success also de-legitimises the anti-Mansour faction that is emerging”, he said, referring to the recent formation of a splinter group challenging his rule.
The network is allied with al-Qaida and the Afghan Taliban and cooperates with other terrorist organizations in the region and was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization on September 7, 2012 by the US Department of State.
Peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban representatives began a year ago, with Pakistan as the mediator.
It is uncertain whether the latest violence in Afghanistan is meant to disrupt talks or strengthen the Taliban’s negotiating hand, but government Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah said Kabul would not bow to pressure. The faction, which emerged following the revelation previous year that the Taliban leader and founder Mullah Mohammed Omar had died, is believed to be relatively small and its absence from the battlefield is unlikely to be a game changer.
Last week a U.S. soldier became the first American killed in Afghanistan in 2016 while two more were wounded, more than a year after foreign combat troops were withdrawn. They complain bitterly about inadequate supplies and still rely heavily on US airpower.
Observers say the intensifying insurgency highlights a push by the militants to seize more territory in a bid to wrangle greater concessions during talks.
After a six-month delay, representatives from the United States, China, Afghanistan and Pakistan met in Islamabad on Monday to discuss whether negotiations between the Taliban and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government are even possible.
After six months of worsening fighting, with the province of Helmand slipping out of control and frequent suicide bombings in the capital, Afghanistan and its neighbors are trying to return to peace talks, albeit without the Taliban for now.
“We have a very clear-cut stance about peace talks: all the foreign occupying forces would need to be withdrawn”, Mullah Abdul Manan Niazi, Rasool’s deputy, told Reuters on Monday. A subsequent power struggle within the Taliban has raised questions about who would represent the insurgents if and when the talks with Kabul are restarted. The meeting will not include the Taliban.
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When the Taliban opened their office in Qatar in June 2013, they outlined their two-pronged strategy of fighting and negotiating simultaneously.
