Sartaj invites Karzai to Pakistan
Says Islamabad will extend all possible help for resumption of peace talks with Taliban.
KABUL (Dunya News) - Foreign affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz held talks in Afghanistan on Sunday, inviting President Hamid Karzai to Islamabad in a bid to improve strained relations and revive flagging peace efforts with the Taliban.
Foreign affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz, who held talks with Afghanistan officials, is expected to meet Karzai.
Aziz said Pakistan was again prepared to ease the movement of Taliban negotiators and release more Taliban detainees should the Afghan government request it.
"I have brought a message of cordiality and goodwill for Afghanistan," he told a news conference. "The main purpose of my visit, as some of you may know, is to convey a formal invitation from Prime Minister Nawaz. Sharif to President Karzai to visit Pakistan."
International efforts to start talks with Taliban insurgents on ending 12 years of war are in disarray after the disastrous opening of a Taliban liaison office in Qatar last month.
The West considers Pakistan s support vital to achieving lasting peace with the Taliban in Afghanistan. But relations between the neighbours are mired in mutual distrust and accusations over Taliban and other Islamist militancy which plagues both countries.
"For us, a peaceful, stable and united Afghanistan is in the interest of Pakistan," said Aziz, calling for a "close relationship" and reiterating Islamabad s support for an "Afghan-led" peace process with the Taliban.
Sharif has kept Pakistan s foreign affairs portfolio under his own control but Aziz, who served as a minister in the 1990s, is effectively the foreign minister.
Aziz denied perceptions held by many in Afghanistan that Pakistan controls the Taliban, given that its leaders have presumed sanctuary in Pakistan, and insisted Islamabad could only help bring about a deal and not impose one.
"We have some contacts with the Taliban because of the past but we don t control them," he told the news conference. He said Pakistan had eased the movement of Taliban negotiators and released 26 Taliban detainees at the request of the Afghan government.
"In the future, if to this extent we are requested, we can play the same role but in appropriate time and in consultation with other interested parties," he said.
In an unusually blunt remark, Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul said that efforts on both sides to strengthen relations, fight terrorism and ignite peace talks "have not been successful".
"I hope the new government of Pakistan will open a new chapter in Pakistan-Afghan relations," he told the same press conference.
