Hopes weak for Pakistan-Afghanistan peace talks

A high-level Afghan delegation was due to arrive in Pakistan yesterday for talks on peace in the war-torn nation, but analysts warned that without Taliban involvement little would come of the negotiations.
Members of Afghanistan's High Peace Council, led by chairman Salahuddin Rabbani, are to meet Pakistani political leaders and the head of the powerful military over the coming three days.
Support from Pakistan, which backed the Taliban regime that held power in Kabul from 1996 to 2001, is seen as crucial to peace in Afghanistan beyond 2014.
Afghan-Pakistani talks were derailed more than a year ago amid a welter of accusations when Rabbani's father Burhanuddin, then head of the peace council, was assassinated by a suicide bomber in Kabul.