New Afghan peace talks expected in Oman

peshawar/kabul — Representatives of Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and the United States will meet in Oman next week to discuss reviving peace talks with Afghan Taleban militants, an Afghan official and a Pakistani foreign ministry source said.

But it was not clear if Afghan Taleban representatives would join the talks. Taleban sources said they had not yet received an invitation and plan to skip Monday’s discussions in Muscat, casting doubt on efforts to revive long-stalled negotiations.

The four-nation Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QGC), comprising Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and the United States, has been trying to ease the path to direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taleban, with little success. The Taleban, ousted in a US-led military intervention in 2001, has been gaining territory in recent years through a violent insurgency to try to topple Afghanistan’s Western-backed government. According to some reports Taleban have captured more than 50 per cent of Afghanistan territory.

Amin Waqad, a close aide to Agfhan President Ashraf Ghani and a senior member of the High Peace Council (HPC), said, “HPC and government representatives will participate, and it is an important one because the Taleban representatives will be there. We will go with a clear plan.”

A senior Pakistani foreign ministry official confirmed the talks would take place on October 16. Last week, Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif told Voice of America the “quadrilateral arrangement will again be in operation” in Muscat in October.

The US embassy in Islamabad did not comment for the report.

Efforts to kick start talks have failed after the 2015 announcement of the death of the Taleban’s founder and long-time leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, in 2013. The United States wants Pakistan to exert more influence on the group to bring them to the negotiating table. Two senior Afghan Taleban leaders told Reuters the group’s leadership council met on Tuesday and decided it would not send a delegation to Muscat even if the group was invited to participate. —