Afghanistan peace talks begin
Hopes pinned on negotiations to lead to efforts to engage Taliban
Pakistan yesterday opened four-country talks aimed at luring the Afghan Taliban back to the negotiating table with the Kabul government, even as the insurgents wage an unprecedented winter campaign of violence.
The talks in Islamabad, announced in December, come as the Taliban's insurgency intensifies particularly in the country's south, testing the capacity of Afghanistan's overstretched military and placing pressure on Pakistan to rein in its one-time proxies.
Some analysts hope the added presence of China and the United States may help overcome mistrust between Kabul and Islamabad, though it remains unclear when the Taliban themselves will return to the negotiating table. They are not part of this week's talks.
"The primary objective of the reconciliation process is to create conditions to bring the Taliban groups to the negotiation table and offer them incentives that can persuade them to move away from using violence," said Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan's top foreign affairs official, as he opened the talks.
The so-called "roadmap" talks are meant to lay the groundwork for direct dialogue between the Afghan government and the Islamist group, whose bloody insurgency shows no signs of abating more than 14 years after they were ousted from power by a US-led coalition.
Aziz cautioned against "unrealistic targets and deadlines" and hinted it was unlikely major breakthroughs would be announced soon.
"Keeping in view the sensitive nature of the group's work, it should be our endeavour to keep the work of this group out of media glare, as much as possible," he said.
A first round of dialogue with the Taliban themselves was held in July but collapsed after the group belatedly confirmed their leader Mullah Omar was dead.
The news sparked infighting between senior Taliban leaders and the group's new chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour, which in turn led to the creation of a new faction headed by Mohamed Rasool in November.