VOA News / February 6, 2016
Ayesha Tanzeem
ISLAMABAD – Representatives of United States, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan haveadopted a roadmap to facilitate direct peace talks between the Afghan government and the Afghan Taliban in Islamabad Saturday.
A joint press release, issued after a meeting of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group, announced that the four countries were trying to set a date for the talks which were expected before the end of the month, and called on “all Taliban groups” to join these talks.
The statement indicated that the roadmap has stipulated “the stages and steps in the process.”
The group of four countries stressed that the process should lead to a political settlement and end of violence in Afghanistan.
Taliban have not yet indicated their willingness to join these talks. Instead, its officials criticized this process in a statement after a recent unofficial conference in Qatar last month organized by a Nobel peace prize winning group Pugwash.
“Unfortunately, foreigners and the Kabul Administration are [now] engaged in these activities and do not have a real intention for peace,” the Taliban statement had said.
They have also reiterated their preconditions for considering end of hostilities: release of their prisoners including those under US custody, removal of senior leaders from the United Nations sanctions list, and withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.
The QCG group, launched in December in Islamabad on the sidelines of a regional conference on Afghanistan, is comprised of senior diplomats from the US, China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
For this third meeting of the group, the US delegation was led by the US Special Representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Olson, Chinese delegation was led by special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Deng Xijun, Pakistan’s foreign secretary Aizaz Chaudhry led his delegation as the host, and Afghanistan’s deputy foreign minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai led his country’s delegation.
The next meeting of the group will be on February 23 in Kabul.