KABUL - Pakistan on Friday said direct talks between the Afghan government and the Afghan Taliban “may take place in coming days.”
Pakistani Foreign Office (FO) spokesman Nafees Zakria told reporters in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, that efforts for holding the talks were underway, but he had no confirmed reports of the dates of the talks.
Dawn.com quoted Zakria as saying that convening the meeting was a “shared responsibility” of the four countries involved in the quadrilateral process: Afghanistan , Pakistan, the US and China.
In its fourth meeting in Kabul the Quadrilateral Group decided that the first round of direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban would be held in Islamabad in the first week of March.
The QCG on Afghan peace and reconciliation issued a joint communiqué after its meeting, saying all Taliban and other groups will be invited to participate in the talks through their authorised representatives.
Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz surprised many in his speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in the US when he admitted that Pakistan had influence over Taliban, which it could use to bring them to the negotiating table, a fact that Islamabad denied for years. (Pajhwok)