Peace talks between Afghan officials, Taliban conclude, plan to meet again

An official from the Afghan government’s high peace council told The Associated Press that the meeting took place Tuesday in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. As security has deteriorated, a handful of Afghan districts have fallen under Taliban control. That toll includes Afghan and foreign civilians, foreign forces, and insurgents.

Tensions have risen along the Afghan-Pakistani border in recent months. The world recognizes that Afghan forces “aren’t weak and can’t be defeated”, he said.

Pakistan, Afghanistan’s eastern neighbour, has historically supported the Tailban and many Afghans accuse it of continuing to do so in the hope of maintaining influence in the country.

This time-bounded rapprochement is seemingly neither totally one-sided nor it is asymmetric concession, but it could be interpreted as an attempt to mend and balance relation between the two all-time rivals in pursuit of stabilization of Afghanistan. On official from the council said the government representatives include Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Karzai.

The Taliban’s official spokesman has in the past disavowed the tentative peace process, saying those meeting with Afghanistan’s government were not authorized to do so.

Kaswar KlasraWednesday, July 08, 2015 – Islamabad-Amid serious efforts from Pakistan’s side, government of Afghanistan and Talban have agreed to hold talks in a bid to give peace a chance in Afghanistan. Privately, Taliban members have indicated to the Afghan government that they wanted clarification from Washington on the future US and coalition troop presence in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama had announced his intention to pull out all but 5,500 troops by year’s end. Ashraf Ghani’s election, however, brought to the office a leader whose extensive plans for Afghanistan were from the outset predicated on bettering relations with Pakistan.

“This is an important step toward advancing prospects for a credible peace”, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

In fact, Ghani’s predicament – of needing the United States and wanting to begin a dialogue with the Taliban – is reflected in a statement made by the Afghan President whilst in Washington. Later that day, three armed militants, two of them rumored to be wearing suicide vests, stormed the NDS headquarters killing at least one guard. Criticism come mostly from the predecessor and of those who had antagonistic relations with Pakistan during the past two decades. “He has taken controversial steps that his predecessor didn’t take, and now we have to wait to see whether the Pakistani side is honest or not”, he said.