Will do everything to further Afghan peace process: PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday said Pakistan will be doing everything within its power to further the Afghan peace process.

In a tweet, the prime minister noted that Pakistan had helped in the dialogue between the Taliban and the United States in Abu Dhabi. “Pakistan has helped in the dialogue between Taliban and the US in Abu Dhabi. Let us pray that this leads to peace and ends almost three decades of suffering of the brave Afghan people. Pakistan will be doing everything within its power to further the peace process,” he wrote.

The prime minister’s tweet came on the heels of a meeting between the US diplomats and Afghan Taliban representatives, who met in the United Arab Emirates for the first round of talks facilitated by Pakistan on finding a negotiated settlement of issues in Afghanistan.

Monitoring report adds: The Afghan government negotiators have arrived in the UAE to join the discussions with the Taliban about talks to end the 17-year war, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Chief negotiator Abdul Salam Rahimi met US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, the presidential palace in Kabul said in a tweet. That was to be followed by an indirect, mediated dialogue between the two sides, in preparation for face-to-face talks, it said.

Also attending the discussions, which began Monday, are representatives of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Pakistan. They are the only nations that officially recognised the Taliban during their five years of rule in Afghanistan. That rule ended with the US-led invasion in 2001.

There was no immediate indication from the participants about what is being discussed at the meeting. But a person in Abu Dhabi with close ties to the Taliban said Khalilzad had asked the group to declare a six-month ceasefire as a confidence-building measure. It wasn’t clear, the person said, what the American envoy offered in return.

Khalilzad told reporters in Kabul last month he hoped a peace deal with the Taliban could be reached before April 20, when the Afghan government is planning to hold elections. But what, if any, progress the sides have made towards a roadmap or framework for negotiations -- let alone a full-fledged deal -- isn’t known.

Still, the Afghan government’s decision to dispatch a negotiating team to Abu Dhabi is significant. While Afghan officials are known to have regular contact with the Taliban, the negotiating team’s arrival in Abu Dhabi is believed to be the government’s first formal engagement with the insurgency as part of the latest US-sponsored peace push, which began in July. Before this UAE gathering, US officials met separately with Taliban representatives at least twice in Qatar. How high-level Taliban officials attending the meeting would respond to the presence of the Afghan government delegation move wasn’t certain.

On Monday, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said no meetings between the Taliban and the Afghan government were planned in Abu Dhabi. “Major issues will only be discussed with the American side, in the presence of representatives from several countries,” Mujahid said in a statement.