Pakistan fully supports Afghan Reconciliation process: Sartaj Aziz

ISLAMABAD: The Quadrilateral Coordination Group on Afghanistan meeting is under way here today to contemplate a roadmap for peace and reconciliation, government sources said yesterday.

Senior officials of Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the US are attending  the meeting, the third since formation of the four-nation group in December.

Addressing the opening session, Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said that Pakistan fully supports Afghan reconciliation process.

He hoped that a roadmap for the peace talks between the Afghan government and the Afghan Taliban would soon be finalised.

The Coordination Group will pick up the third from the second meeting held in Kabul last month.

Member-countries of the Heart of Asia Process on the sidelines of the conference on Afghanistan, hosted by Pakistan in December last year, formed the Quadrilateral Group to strive to steer out Afghanistan from the decades of violence and establish peace through peaceful means.

The group has so far held three meeting to move beyond the continuous cycle of conflict by engaging the Taliban who have so far not joined the reconciliation process even though the main faction of Taliban, led by Mullah Akhtar Mansur, has hinted at joining it at an appropriate time.

Political observers and analysts believe that peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan will not bear fruits until the Afghan government offers some attractive incentives to the insurgents to come to the negotiation table.