Afghan President Ashraf Ghani may visit Pakistan after Ramazan amid grim prospects for peace talks between the Kabul administration and Afghan Taliban, diplomatic sources said. Afghan President Ghani telephoned Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday and accepted the Latter's invitation to visit Pakistan, adding that the dates for his visit will be decided mutually by the appropriate diplomatic channels.
US special representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad welcomed the telephonic contact between President Ghani and Prime Minister Khan. "Pleased to see PM Imran Khan and President Ashraf Ghani spoke today [Sunday]. Both leaders say they prize the economic dividend peace can bring, especially the potential gains from regional connectivity and integration. That's a common vision that can truly propel the region forward", he said in a tweet.
The focus of President Ghani's visit, according to the sources, will be peace talks with the Taliban and discussion on the 'impediments' in improving bilateral relations. "Afghan government wants to enter in peace talks with the Taliban and for the purpose they [Afghan authorities] believe that Pakistan can play a key role to persuade them [Taliban] to come to the table for dialogue", a diplomatic source said.
However, he stated that it is unlikely that Taliban will sit with the Kabul administration for talks, adding that the fundamental issue is reaching an agreement on the 'power-sharing formula' in Kabul which is under discussion in the ongoing peace talks between the US and Taliban.
"What else can Pakistan do? We made sincere efforts to bring them [Taliban] to the negotiating table with the US and talks are ongoing. Now the problem is that Taliban believe that they fought the war against the US all alone and succeeded. In such a situation, they [Taliban] question why they should agree on a power-sharing formula with those Afghans who were part of the US war against them for the last 18 years", he further clarified. The recently concluded Afghan Loya Jirga, convened by President Ghani, was unanimous in a call for peace with the Taliban followed by Ghani's offer of a ceasefire and release of 175 Taliban prisoners on the eve of the holy month of Ramazan; the offer was rejected by the Taliban.
Taliban's spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid, in a statement, maintained that the conference could not be termed a 'public representative gathering', adding that majority of the Afghan politicians had boycotted the conference and those who participated had been part of the US backed Kabul administration for the last 18 years.
However, he said the Taliban's negotiation team is currently holding dialogue with the US team and they will only discuss Afghanistan's internal issues after the success of the dialogue with the US. "Under the shadows of war, talk with Kabul administration is fruitless...the fact is that Afghanistan is under US occupation and we will continue our jihad against the outsiders," the Taliban spokesperson further stated.
Comments
Comments are closed.