The first session of quadrilateral coordination committee commenced today in Islamabad
Politically negotiated peace settlement only viable option for lasting peace in Afghanistan.
Dunya News Report (Madiha Fareed)
ISLAMABAD: Speaking at the inaugural session of the quadrilateral meeting, Prime Minister’s Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said that the meeting is focused on chalking out a viable framework for reconciliation process in Afghanistan.
The first and foremost task at the hands of quadrilateral committee is to define the overall direction of the peace process, along with its goals and targets to create a conducive environment for holding direct talks between Afghan Government and the Taliban by offering them incentives that can persuade them to drop weapons, said Sartaj.
He said that politically negotiated peace settlement is the only viable option for lasting peace in Afghanistan. Course of action to be adopted should be flexible and must not be tied to any deadlines; adding to that he said positive public messaging is crucial to the success of peace talk. He stressed that it’s important not to attach pre-conditions to the start of negotiation process; threat of use of force against resurging Taliban cannot persuade them to negotiate.
He expressed high hopes that the quadrilateral meetings will have constructive and meaningful outcomes. He also reaffirmed that Pakistan’s will put all necessary efforts to facilitate the peace process including intelligence sharing and enhancing security and terrorism cooperation.
First meeting of quadrilateral coordination committee commenced today brought together top diplomats of four nations (Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and United States) to sit down to explore options to bring the mired Afghan peace process back on track which came to an abrupt halt last year. The prominent attendees include Pakistan’s Secretary Foreign Affairs Aizaz Ahmed, Afghan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai and special representatives of China and the United States.
In July last year, Pakistan finally managed to get the two parties of Afghan civil-war to the negotiating table after a series of failed attempts. Following a series of informal contacts between Afghan officials and Taliban representatives in different countries, Pakistan brokered “Murree Talks” marked the first direct official talks between Afghan government and Taliban. Some Pakistan officials claimed that it took “months of intense effort” to convince the Taliban to join the talks.
In first round of talks, held from July 7 to 8 in Pakistan’s city Murree, officials of Afghan government and Taliban representatives came face to face to discuss the possibility of a political settlement. Other stakeholders present at the talks included representatives from China and the United States. Washington lauded Pakistan’s role for arranging these historic talks and expressed hope that the reconciliation process will bring stability to the region and Secretary General United Nations also appreciated the initiative. However the optimism was short lived as the second round of talks - scheduled for July 31- was suspended when the news of Taliban Commander Mullah Umar’s death broke just two days before the scheduled talks. The talks were never resumed as new Taliban leadership took over with Mullah Akhtar Mansour as their new commander.
Ghani’s administration has been keen on finding a sustainable political settlement for the war-prone region and has been urging Pakistan to play a more vital role: however Pakistani officials have reiterated that “It is an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace initiative”, and Pakistan will only facilitate the process.
The meeting is deemed as highly important regarding peace process in Afghanistan. Afghan officials claimed that Pakistan will present a list of Taliban willing to negotiate with Kabul. The high-level talks aim to devise a mechanism to bring Taliban back to the negotiating table to come up with a political settlement for the region.
Taliban leaders; however, have opted for a hard-line stance ahead of the meeting saying no to any kind of dialogue. Earlier, reports had claimed that Sirajjudin Haqqani could be one of the Taliban leaders to take part in the peace talks; but the reports were later dismissed by Taliban sources as baseless and reiterated that no representative of Taliban will join the talks. The Taliban officials blatantly dismissed any possibility to sit with what they call “powerless Kabul Administration”, and view it as illegitimate and a puppet of foreign powers.
