Last-ditch effort underway to salvage talks with Kabul
ISTANBUL: A last-ditch effort is underway to salvage ongoing talks between Islamabad and Kabul, despite the Afghan Taliban’s “stubbornness”.
A second round of talks between the two sides had begun on Saturday in Istanbul. This followed the Pakistan-Afghanistan talks mediated jointly by Qatar and Turkiye in Doha on October 18-19, which had resulted in a permanent ceasefire after days of intense border clashes.
The Qatar talks had come after days of fighting along the Pak-Afghan border and strikes by Islamabad on Gul Bahadur group camps in Afghanistan. The agreement reached in Doha extended an initial 48-hour truce and resulted in a permanent ceasefire, as well as a commitment to reconvene in Istanbul to work on mechanisms for lasting peace and stability between the two countries.
“On the third day, the talks continued for 18 hours. During the 18 hours, the Afghan Taliban delegation repeatedly agreed to Pakistan’s logical and legitimate demand for credible and decisive action against the TTP (Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan) and terrorism,” a media outlet claimed.
They added that while the Afghan delegation acknowledged the central issue, its position changed due to “instructions received from Kabul”.
The security sources termed the “illogical and illegal advice received from Kabul” responsible for the “failure of the talks”. They affirmed that Pakistan and the hosts wanted to resolve the “complex issues in a very thoughtful and serious manner”.
“A last-ditch effort is still underway, despite the Taliban’s stubbornness, to somehow resolve this issue through logic and talks and the talks are moving towards a final round,” the security official said.
Earlier, sources familiar with the closed-door discussions said that while “most of the points had been mutually agreed between the two sides”, the mechanism for verifiable action against terrorist groups operating from Afghan territory, particularly the outlawed TTP, continued to be the main sticking point. Monitoring Desk
