‘Pakistan committed to bring Afghan Taliban back to talks’

The quadrilateral process involving Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and the U.S. was launched during a meeting of the four countries on the sidelines of the Heart of Asia Conference held in Islamabad last month.

Representatives from Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the United States ‎‎met here for a day-long brainstorming session.

The meeting between representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States was announced in December but Pakistani officials only confirmed the date on Sunday, having previously suggested they may take place later in the month.

The Pakistani prime minister’s foreign affairs adviser, Sartaj Aziz, opened the meeting in Islamabad, saying that the aim of the talks was to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table as part of an attempt to try and end the 15 years of fighting between insurgents and government forces.

He said we are looking forward to the mega China-Pakistan-Economic Corridor (CPEC) to become the catalyst for trans-regional commerce, trade, industry and investment flows.

He argued that certain confidence building measures can play a key role in encouraging Taliban groups to join the negotiation process.

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He emphasised the importance of not attaching pre-conditions to start the negotiating process.

The Express Tribune reported that Taliban were not ready for talks with Kabul government as they believe that it was useless to hold peace parleys with “powerless” administration. A subsequent power struggle within the Taliban has raised questions about who would represent the insurgents if and when the talks with Kabul are restarted.

“We have a very clear-cut stance about peace talks: all the foreign occupying forces would need to be withdrawn”, Mullah Abdul Manan Niazi, deputy for splinter group leader Mullah Mohammad Rasool Akhund, told Reuters on Monday.

The meeting comes as Afghanistan’s battlefield losses are mounting and some parts of the country are under constant threat from Taliban gunmen.

The Taliban leaders have not yet officially responded to the quadrilateral approach.

Mullah Omar’s death confirmation led to widening rift among the Taliban leadership which resulted to suspension of peace talks. The expansion of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan has fueled regional and global concerns that the upcoming spring fighting season may lead to even more bloodshed and instability in the war-shattered country.

Renewed peace efforts come amid spiralling violence in Afghanistan, with previous year one of the bloodiest on record following the withdrawal of most foreign troops at the end of 2014.

The Op-Ed in Newsweek weekly magazine further added “Why does the Pakistani military want to maintain cooperative relations with the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network?”

Afghanistan pinned high hopes on the process as the stakeholders had agreed on action against the irreconcilable Taliban.