“It is important to undertake a realistic assessment of the opportunities as well as anticipated obstacles in the process and then develop clarity on how to proceed further”, Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan’s foreign policy chief, said in the statement.
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He was confident that the meeting of the Quadrilateral group will have constructive and meaningful deliberations focusing on all relevant issues and charting the way forward keeping sight on their shared goal of achieving lasting peace in Afghanistan through a politically negotiated settlement.
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz while addressing the four-nation meeting of the QCC today said the talks aimed to outline efficient procedures which will provide a basis for smooth functioning of the group.
Monday’s meeting – which also included the governments of the USA and China – sought to revive the process that collapsed last summer after Afghanistan announced that Mullah Mohammad Omar, founder and leader of the Taliban, had died in a Pakistani hospital more than two years ago.
Afghan officials say the meeting schedule does not include any Taliban representation, but they do not rule out the possibility of the group joining at some stage.
Taliban representatives are not invited to the talks, vowing to talk only to the US and not to the Afghan government.
But a splinter group, formed after a dispute in leadership followed the reveal of Mullah Omar’s death, scoffed at the involvement of the United States, China and Pakistan.
“The Pakistani government will present the list of Taliban who are willing to talk and those who are not interested in talks”, he added.
The Taliban leaders have not yet officially responded to the quadrilateral approach.
“We are not involved and will never be part of Mullah Mansour’s peace negotiation”, said Rasoul’s deputy and spokesman, Mullah Manan Niazi, adding the group’s objective remained to drive foreign forces out of Afghanistan completely.
However, the Taliban, who are divided by factional infighting, are not attending Monday, January 11’s talks. Kabul hoped the it could help to stop the Taliban from launching their annual “Spring Offensive” that marks the beginning of fighting season in Afghanistan.
Terms for the upcoming meeting had been finalized last month during a visit to Kabul by Pakistan’s powerful army chief of staff Gen. Raheel Sharif, Faisal said.
“While opening peace talks could be a positive step, it will only yield fruit if Pakistani authorities also begin to close down Afghan Taliban military operations”, they asserted.
Afghanistan has said the aim is to work out a road map for peace negotiations and a way of assessing if they remain on track.
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The so-called “roadmap” talks are meant to lay the groundwork for direct dialogue between the Afghangovernment and the armed group, whose insurgency shows no signs of abating more than 14 years after they were ousted from power by a U.S.-led coalition.
