Chief Afghan Peacemaker Visits Pakistan
Dr. Abdullah
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
September 28,2020
ISLAMABAD – Abdullah Abdullah, the head of Afghanistan’s peacemaking High Council for National Reconciliation, has begun a three-day official visit to Pakistan.
Abdullah is undertaking his first visit to the neighboring country in more than a decade amid peace negotiations between representatives of the Afghan government and Taliban insurgents underway in Qatar.
Officials in Islamabad said that in meetings between Abdullah and Prime Minister Imran Khan as well as other top Pakistani leaders, the two sides will discuss matters related to the U.S.-brokered intra-Afghan dialogue and strengthening of bilateral relations.
The ongoing talks between the Afghan warring factions, which commenced earlier this month in Qatar’s capital of Doha, are a product of the February 29 agreement the United States signed with the Taliban to close the war in Afghanistan.
President Donald Trump’s administration credits Pakistan, known for maintaining close contacts with the Taliban, for encouraging the insurgents to negotiate the deal to help the U.S. extricate its troops from America’s longest conflict.
“Pakistan is deeply gratified that it has fulfilled its part of the responsibility,” Khan said Friday while addressing the United Nations General Assembly.
He stressed the need for Afghan leaders to seize the “historic opportunity” to achieve reconciliation and restore peace in their war-torn country.
“Peace and stability in Afghanistan will open new opportunities for development and regional connectivity,” the Pakistani leader said.
Pakistan’s links to the Taliban have been a primary source of political tensions with Afghanistan. The two countries share a nearly 2,600 kilometer border, and each accuses the other of sheltering militants involved in subversive acts on their respective territories.
Landlocked Afghanistan has for decades relied mostly on Pakistani overland routes and seaports for bilateral as well as international trade. Mutual tensions, however, have significantly undermined bilateral trade activities in recent years.
“The visit of Dr. Abdullah Abdullah will contribute to further strengthening amity, brotherhood and close cooperation between the two countries,” a Pakistani foreign ministry statement said Sunday.
Last week, Abdullah told a Washington-based think tank that the way forward for Kabul and Islamabad is to cooperate closely to deny terrorist groups a foothold in the region in favor of economic development.
“There is a lot of mistrust, founded or unfounded. We need to address those things, and in a sort of forward-looking ways. There are lots of grievances on both sides,” the chief Afghan peacemaker told the Council on Foreign Relations.
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U.S. Envoy For Afghanistan Says Taliban Won’t Accept Permanent Cease-Fire Until Political Agreement
Khalilzad
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
September 26, 2020
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy for Afghanistan, has predicted the Taliban will not accept a permanent truce until a political deal is reached with the Afghan government.
“I think you’re right that the Talibs will not accept a cease-fire, comprehensive and permanent, until there’s a political settlement,” Khalilzad said on September 25.
His comments to the U.S. public broadcaster PBS came as Taliban militants continue to carry out attacks across the country despite taking part in peace talks with the Afghan government in Qatar.
Khalilzad said despite the current spike in violence, it was still at lower levels than the same time last year.
“Compared to the first six months of last year to this year, despite a recent increase in violence, the number of casualties, both military and civilians, are down this year,” Khalilzad, a veteran diplomat, said.
“So, yes, the violence is high at this point. And both sides need to bring down the level of violence. And we’re committed, when I return to work with both sides, to get an agreement on reduction of violence,” he added.
When asked why the militants have not yet publicly cut ties with the terror network of Al-Qaeda as set out in their deal with the United States, Khalilzad said that Washington will assess the situation in the next couple of months after the number of its troops in Afghanistan drop to 4,000-5,000 from the current level of 8,500.
The comments came as dozens of members of the Afghan security forces were killed or wounded across the country in a series of Taliban attacks.
Taliban militants on September 26 claimed to have killed an unspecified number of troops in central Bamyan Province and northeastern Badakhshan Province.
On September 23, the Taliban launched a wave of attacks on security checkpoints in southern Afghanistan overnight, killing a total of 28 Afghan policemen, officials said.
The violence comes even as Taliban leaders and Afghan government-appointed negotiators are holding historic peace talks in Qatar, a Mideast country where the Taliban set up a political office after they were toppled from power in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.
The negotiations, which started earlier this month, are meant to end the fighting and establish a roadmap for a postwar society.
In the negotiations in Qatar, the two sides have so far have spent more than a week deciding agendas and the manner in which the two sides will be conducting the negotiations.
With reporting by AP and AFP
Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
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