Four country talks on Taliban to begin in Pakistan
Date
1/10/2016 4:27:23 PM
(MENAFN- The Peninsula) File picture for representation only
By Amjad Ali
ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan Pakistan Chinaand the United States are set to begin talks on Monday aimed atrestarting the Afghan peace process and eventually ending 14years of bloodshed fighting the Taliban insurgents.
Officials from the four countries will meet in IslamabadPakistan foreign office sources said in what they hope will bea first step towards resuming stalled negotiations. The Talibanare not expected to attend the talks.
The Islamist militants have stepped up their violentcampaign in the last year to oust the government in Kabul thatis struggling after most foreign troops left at the end of 2014.
High-profile suicide attacks in the capital and majorterritorial losses in Helmand province have underlined how farthe country remains from peace without major Taliban factions onboard.
A previous fledging peace process last year was stoppedafter the Taliban announced that its founder Mullah Omar hadbeen dead for two years throwing the militant group intodisarray and factional infighting.
Kabul has been trying to limit expectations of abreakthrough at Monday's talks and has said the aim is to workout a road map for peace negotiations and a way of assessing if they remain on track.
Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Karzai and Pakistan'sForeign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry will attend the talks onMonday Pakistan foreign office sources told Reuters.
Besides an official from China the U.S. SpecialRepresentative to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Olson or theU.S. ambassador would attend from the United States a statedepartment official said.
"It'll be an opportunity to further our partnership withAfghanistan Pakistan and China in support of an Afghan-ledAfghan-owned reconciliation which is what we've said all alongwe want to see" U.S. state department spokesman John Kirbysaid.
"We're obviously looking forward to ... to trying to makesome progress here on what has been a very difficult issue."
Afghanistan last month turned to Pakistan with which itshares a porous border from where the Taliban operate bases onboth sides for help in reviving the peace talks.
The Taliban who are fighting to restore strict Islamic rulein place before the group was ousted from power in 2001 aresplit on whether to participate in any future talks.
Some elements within the group have signalled they may bewilling to send negotiators at some point but other factionsremain opposed to any form of negotiation with Kabul.
Afghanistan suffered one of its bloodiest years on record in2015. More than 3180 Afghan civilians were killed a recordhigh the United Nations said bringing the number killed since2009 to more than 17000.
Reuters