Imran Khan vows Afghan peace push as Pakistan takes lead role

Pakistan will do everything in its power to bring peace to Afghanistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan pledged yesterday, saying his country was brokering talks between American and Taliban envoys in Abu Dhabi.

“Pakistan has helped in the dialogue between Taliban and the US in Abu Dhabi,” Mr Khan tweeted.

“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.” After a first day of discussions, Taliban militants said they held “extensive rounds of meetings” with US officials on the withdrawal of American troops.

The three-day meeting, which began on Monday, appeared to mark a significant shift for Islamabad, which has long been accused of granting the Taliban safe haven and not doing enough to end the Afghan conflict.

But the difficulties of progress were underlined when the Taliban delegation continued to refuse to talk to Afghan government.

A Taliban delegation met US President Donald Trump’s envoy Zalmay Khalilzad along with officials from the UAE, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Some of Afghanistan’s regional neighbours are increasingly jockeying to influence any fledgling peace process, as Mr Trump eyes an exit from the 17-year war, America’s longest.

While discussions are said to be at their earliest stages, the UN envoy to Afghanistan, Tadamichi Yamamoto, said a negotiated peace “has never been more real than it is now”.

America and its Nato allies have long blamed Pakistan for harbouring the Taliban leadership and not doing enough to bring the militants to the negotiating table.

Mr Khan, who last month bristled at Mr Trump’s accusations that Pakistan had not done “a damn thing” to help America, said his country had been crucial to the Afghan peace talks between the Taliban and the US.

America refused to comment on the discussions but a Taliban statement said talks “revolved around withdrawal of occupation forces from Afghanistan, ending the oppression being carried out by the US and her allies”.

In less than 24 hours, the Taliban issued two statements repeating that they were not meeting the Afghan delegation during the talks.

In the first statement on Monday, they rejected media claims of a meeting between the warring parties as “propaganda”. In the second, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said the discussion with the US delegation about withdrawal of troops did not concern Kabul.

But despite the Taliban’s resistance, the Afghan delegation said it remained hopeful.

The Taliban say the government of President Ashraf Ghani is a puppet administration of the US.

“We noticed that the Taliban are serious about peace talks,” Asadullah Zahiri, deputy spokesman of the High Peace Council of Afghanistan, told The National.

“The Taliban have shown interest in the proposed ceasefire and we are happy with the outcome of this meeting.”

Mr Zahiri said that this could help to start the “talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government”.

“Our plan is to conduct peace talks within Afghanistan,” he said. “With the support of our international colleagues, especially Dr Khalilzad, we are trying to get the Taliban representative to attend talks in Afghanistan.”

Russia last month staked its own claim on any peace settlement, hosting a meeting where Taliban envoys met representatives of the Afghan high peace council.

“Many countries in the region are competing to open channels with the Taliban leadership and position themselves as lead facilitators of US-Taliban conversations,” said Graeme Smith, a consultant for International Crisis Group.

“Pakistan is well positioned to help but the Americans are wary about giving any third party too much control over the nascent process.”

The Abu Dhabi talks also reflect US efforts to bring Saudi Arabia’s influence to bear on Pakistan. Riyadh has recently given Islamabad a $6 billion rescue package to help stave off economic crisis.

“At this juncture, if Saudi Arabia tells Pakistan to support the Afghan peace process then there is no way that Pakistan can ignore it,” a senior western diplomat in Kabul told Reuters.

Before the Abu Dhabi meeting, this year’s discussions had not got beyond “talks about talks”, western officials said. The new talks have included discussion of confidence-building measures to start negotiations.