However, it’s still not clear which side Taliban leader Mullah Mansour falls on. Pakistan’s intelligence agency has historical ties to the Taliban leadership, and many top Taliban figures found refuge across the border after being driven from power in Kabul in 2001.
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Increasingly, US aircraft and ground forces have been pulled into battles to prevent Afghan security forces from being defeated by the Taliban.
Addressing the meeting, Aziz said the first and the most important process is to determine the roadmap of the reconciliation process. The existence of such a list was announced Sunday by Javid Faisal, deputy spokesman for Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.
Monday’s negotiations are taking place amid spiraling violence by the Taliban who stepped up their offensive after the withdrawal of foreign forces from the country in late 2014.
Talks with the Taliban have been on hold since July, when they collapsed after just one meeting following Pakistan’s announcement that longtime Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had been dead for more than two years.
But he cautioned: “The Taliban have not yet showed their willingness to talk”.
Taliban militants have been intensifying their attacks on the Afghan government since the start of this year, with suicide bombings hitting various areas of the country, including the capital, Kabul.
But despite the internal rifts and the onset of winter, the group has continued to carry out brazen attacks and in recent weeks seized large swathes of the key opium-rich district of Sangin in the southern province of Helmand, a traditional stronghold of the insurgents.
He said the meeting of the Quadrilateral Groups has a great significance.
Afghanistan last month turned to Pakistan for help in reviving the peace talks.
“Those who are interested in peace can join the dialogue, but those who wish to continue the fight will be targeted through joint counter-terrorism platforms”, Faisal said, referring to bilateral agreements.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif were present in that meeting, which was also attended by senior officials of China and US. “Pakistan has a vital role in these talks and it must play its role now as the Afghan government doesn’t have the capacity to bring the Afghan Taliban to the table for talks”, Pakistan-based defense analyst Saad M. Khan told VOA Deewa Radio.
The meeting adopted terms for the work of the QCG and agreed to continue regular meetings to advance the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan.
“We want talks with the Americans first because we consider them a direct party”, the Taliban official said in a face-to-face interview with The AP.
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“All of the surrounding circumstances of the next round of negotiations don’t seem to be particularly favorable, as far as I can see”, said Hans-Jakob Schindler, a Taliban expert on the United Nations team monitoring sanctions against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
