Pak, US look to restart Afghan peace process
CRUCIAL TALKS Dialogue aimed at bringing Taliban to negotiating table ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan and the US are expected to resume talks aimed at bringing the Afghan Taliban to the negotiating table despite bilateral relations being at their lowest in several years.
US principal deputy assistant secretary for South and Central Asia, Alice Wells, arrived in Islamabad on Monday for what officials described as “crucial talks to explore the possibility of resuming the Afghan reconciliation process”.
A state department official and President Donald Trump’s point person for the region, Wells is scheduled to meet senior officials of the Foreign Office, the military and intelligence agencies during her stay in Pakistan.
Ahead of Wells’ visit, Pakistani and Afghan officials have held several rounds of talks in which the two sides worked out a roadmap for inviting the Taliban to join the political process.
Ahead of her arrival in Islamabad, Wells said during a stopover in Kabul on Saturday that the reaction to the ceasefire had created an “impulse for everyone to renew their efforts to find a negotiated political solution”. She said, “Increasingly I think it’s becoming simply unacceptable for the Taliban not to negotiate.”
Wells also said Pakistan needs to do more to bring Taliban to the negotiating table. “Pakistan has an important role to play…but we have not yet seen that sustained and decisive action on the part of Islamabad,” she said.
“It’s going to be very hard for us to achieve our objectives…if Pakistan isn’t working with us.”
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday confirmed that Pakistan and Afghanistan had made considerable progress on how to achieve peace in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s military chief visited Afghanistan twice this year to help ease tensions between the two countries.
Pakistani officials said efforts to bring the Taliban back to the negotiating table are on the cards and both Afghanistan and the US want to reach some deal with the militants before parliamentary elections due later this year.
“Against this backdrop, the visit of Ambassador Wells holds great significance,” a senior Foreign Office official told a local newspaper. The unnamed official said despite recent hiccups in ties, Pakistan and the US are still working closely to find common ground on Afghanistan.
The Taliban have so far ignored Ghani’s offer of peace negotiations and have instead insisted on direct talks with the US. Wells said since the Afghan government and the US are willing to start talking without preconditions, the onus is now on the Taliban to respond.