(MENAFN – The Peninsula) Pakistan on Wednesday said Afghan and Taliban representatives had agreed to meet again after landmark through-the-night talks aimed at ending the militants’ 13-year insurgency.
Advertisement
During the meeting, Sharif reaffirmed Pakistan’s desire to build a positive and forward-looking relationship with Afghanistan. ― Reuters picBEIJING, July 10 ― China will provide Afghanistan with security equipment and training, President Xi Jinping told his Afghan counterpart today, days after Chinese officials observed the first tentative peace talks between Kabul and the Taliban.
The list of demands raised by the Taliban in the initial four-hour meeting were familiar. Pakistanis also felt they had been bypassed at the Doha talks.
Taliban media, however, called talks a Pakistani ploy to deceive Kabul and said they could have “catastrophic” consequences, according to Dawn.
But it remains unclear how far the talks might progress. And there was no offer to stop large-scale military operations against the Taliban.
“The government’s six-member delegation for the first time had a direct meeting with the Taliban representatives in Pakistan“, High Peace Council (HPC) member Haji Din Mohammad said, who was part of the team representing Afghan government. Even there, intermittent efforts to establish such talks have largely faltered.
The Afghan intelligence agency on Thursday said a third top Islamic State commander in Afghanistan was killed in a USA drone strike in the country’s east this week.
In recent months, too, the Taliban have faced an unanticipated threat that could intensify their risk of splintering: the emergence of the Islamic State in Afghanistan.
Jalil said the participation of the insurgents had the blessings of Mullah Ajtar Muhamad Mansour, the second-in-command of the Taliban.
“Shahidullah Shahid, leader of Daesh in Afghanistan and ex- Pakistani Taliban spokesman, killed in Nangarhar drone attack“, said the NDS.
The group’s fighters are thought to be ex- Taliban fighters who have rebranded themselves following the territorial victories won by ISIL in Iraq and Syria in the past year.
Advertisement
Senior officials of Pakistan’s Foreign Office and security establishment also attended the first round of negotiations, he said.
