Top officials from Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the United States are meeting in Islamabad today to finalise a roadmap for resurrecting a stalled peace process in Afghanistan.
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At the onset of the meeting, Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz asked the participants not to attach strings to the dialogue process. The Taliban are not expected to attend the talks, but there are expectations that an agreement between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the eradication of Taliban boltholes in Pakistan, will go a long way toward hampering Taliban attacks in Afghanistan.
The advisor said Pakistan, Afghanistan and China are three close neighbours having common interests and stakes in promoting peace and development in the region.
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“We haven’t received any formal message for peace talks so far and therefore we didn’t appoint our team for negotiations”, he said. They have vowed to talk only to the US government, and not the government in the Afghan capital of Kabul, according to the Associated Press.
The talks are aimed at restarting the Afghan peace process and eventually ending 14 years of bloodshed fighting the Taliban insurgents.
“There is no such thing as the Taliban, there are groups of Taliban”, Ghani said last month.
“Keeping in mind the group’s sensitive nature of work and acknowledging the importance of positive public messaging, Pakistan should keep Taliban talks away from media as much as possible”, Aziz said.
A previous fledging peace process last year was stopped after the Taliban announced that its founder, Mullah Omar, had been dead for two years, throwing the militant group into disarray and factional infighting.
Though the Taliban were not invited to Monday’s talks, a senior Taliban official, who spoke on condition of anonymity fearing exposure and capture, told the AP that two Taliban delegates, now headquartered in Qatar, will meet “soon” with China’s representatives.
“The Pakistani government will present the list of Taliban who are willing to talk and those who are not interested in talks”, he added.
However, the process was delayed with the sudden disclosure of the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar’s death shortly before the second round of 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.
Pakistan’s role as host is significant since its military is seen to exercise considerable influence with the leadership of the Taliban.
Afghanistan hoped that Pakistan will share a list of insurgents who are ready for peace talks.
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“Because the Taliban, maybe they think, if they do this kind of activity, they will be having more visibility and they can again show them as one of the main actor for the peace process, or the main side that Afghanistan should be considering them in the power”.
