Taleban team in Islamabad as Pakistan pushes for Afghan peace talks

Top Stories

Taleban-Afghan talks, Pakistan’s push for talks
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi (left) during a press conference at the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad.

Islamabad - Negotiations are the the only way forward in Afghanistan, says Pakistan foreign minister

By AFP

  • Follow us on
  • google-news
  • whatsapp
  • telegram

Published: Mon 24 Aug 2020, 3:28 PM

Last updated: Mon 24 Aug 2020, 5:35 PM

Pakistan has invited key members of the Taleban's negotiating team to Islamabad, where senior officials will this week press them on the importance of starting peace talks, the country's foreign minister said on Monday.
The meetings come at a crucial time in Afghanistan's conflict, with talks once again stalled amid a controversial prisoner swap.
"The delegation is in Islamabad and we will have a round of talks with them tomorrow as part of efforts aimed at (building) mutual confidence," foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told a press conference.
The Taleban and the Afghan government had signalled they were prepared to start talks immediately after Eid Al Adha, which ended earlier this month, but the process remains bogged down over a prisoner exchange.
Kabul has released about 4,680 insurgent prisoners while the Taleban say they have freed 1,000 members of Afghan security forces, broadly fulfilling an agreement outlined in a deal reached between the US and the Taleban.
But the swap has stumbled over the final few hundred prisoners, with Kabul reluctant to release what it says are dangerous Taleban fighters tied to deadly attacks.
Qureshi said Islamabad had invited the Taleban to Pakistan to stress the importance of talks, saying negotiations were the "the only way forward" in Afghanistan.
"This is for Afghans to reconcile, and our task is that of facilitator," he added.
"The main objective is to secure peace and the next phase should be the start of intra-Afghan dialogue."
In October 2019, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar - the Taleban's co-founder who spent eight years in Pakistani custody - led a delegation to Islamabad ahead of a deal the insurgents signed in February with Washington.
Islamabad has said its influence over the Taleban encouraged the militants to join talks with the US.
On Sunday, Taleban spokesman Suhail Shaheen tweeted that Baradar and other negotiators would discuss "recent developments in Afghanistan's peace process, relaxation and facilitation of peoples' movement and trade between the two neighbouring countries."


More news from