Pakistan, Taliban want Afghan talks to resume
ISLAMABAD: Senior Afghan Taliban leaders and Pakistani officials on Thursday called for the resumption of talks on a peaceful resolution for the war in Afghanistan. The appeal, made during a rare Taliban visit to Islamabad, comes after months-long US-Taliban negotiations collapsed in September and US President Donald Trump announced the talks with the insurgents were “dead”.
The timing of the Taliban visit _ which coincided with that of Washington’s special peace envoy for Afghanistan, who was also in Islamabad on Thursday for “consultations” with Pakistani officials, appears to indicate Pakistan is seeking to help restart the talks. In a statement, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said both sides agreed on Thursday that the peace process should be resumed as soon as possible.
Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi met with the 12-member Taliban team, headed by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban and head of their political office in Qatar.
The Pakistani side included intelligence chief Faiz Hameed, foreign secretary Sohail Mahmood and others. TV footage showed Hameed hugging members of the Taliban delegation, including Baradar, who was released in 2018, years after he was detained in a joint operation carried out by Pakistan’s InterServices Intelligence and the CIA. He was released to facilitate the peace process.