ISLAMABAD: The 12-member Afghan Taliban delegation on Thursday agreed that the resumption of peace process with the United States was the only way to end the conflict in Afghanistan following its meetings with senior Pakistani officials in Islamabad, said the foreign office of Pakistan.
Diplomatic sources confirmed to Arab News that representatives of Afghan insurgent group also met Prime Minister Imran Khan during the day.
Pakistan has been playing the role of a facilitator, trying to catalyze the Afghan peace process, since last year.
Led by the Taliban co-founder, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the delegation is expected to meet US special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, this week who arrived in Islamabad ahead of the Taliban Political Commission’s visit.
During a weekly news briefing, the foreign office spokesman, Dr. Mohammad Faisal, said the talks between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban were “highly sensitive and delicate” and the process needed to be “handled in a careful manner.”
He declined to divulge further details of the delegation’s agenda and its scheduled meetings in the country.
The US and Taliban were on the verge of signing an agreement last month, but the process collapsed after the insurgent group killed an American soldier in Afghanistan.
In an exclusive telephonic interview, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Arab News on Thursday: “It is the US side that retracted, and they should come to the agreement and sign the agreement. It is the only peaceful solution to the Afghan issue.”
Shaheen said that all regional countries “should support the Afghan people in the liberation” of their country and “ending the occupation” of their land.
“Based on our policy we would want to have good relations with our neighboring countries, for the stability of Afghanistan. We would want their role in the construction of Afghanistan,” the Taliban spokesman said.
Resumption of talks with US vital for Afghan peace, say Taliban
Resumption of talks with US vital for Afghan peace, say Taliban
- Diplomatic sources confirm representatives of Afghan insurgent group also met Prime Minister Khan
- Taliban spokesman urges all regional countries to “support the Afghan people in the liberation” of their country
Imran Khan not a ‘national security threat,’ ex-PM’s party responds to Pakistan military
- Pakistan’s military spokesperson on Friday described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat”
- PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan says words used by military spokesperson for Khan were “not appropriate”
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Saturday responded to allegations by Pakistan military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry from a day earlier, saying that he was not a “national security threat.”
Chaudhry, who heads the military’s media wing as director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), spoke to journalists on Friday, in which he referred to Khan as a “mentally ill” person several times during the press interaction. Chaudhry described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat.”
The military spokesperson was responding to Khan’s social media post this week in which he accused Chief of Defense Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir of being responsible for “the complete collapse of the constitution and rule of law in Pakistan.”
“The people of Pakistan stand with Imran Khan, they stand with PTI,” the party’s secretary-general, Salman Akram Raja, told reporters during a news conference.
“Imran Khan is not a national security threat. Imran Khan has kept the people of this country united.”
Raja said there were several narratives in the country, including those that created tensions along ethnic and sectarian lines, but Khan had rejected all of them and stood with one that the people of Pakistan supported.
PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan, flanked by Raja, criticized the military spokesperson as well, saying his press talk on Thursday had “severely disappointed” him.
“The words that were used [by the military spokesperson] were not appropriate,” Gohar said. “Those words were wrong.”
‘NATURAL OUTCOME’
Speaking to reporters earlier on Saturday, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif defended the military spokesperson’s remarks against Khan.
“When this kind of language is used for individuals as well as for institutions, then a reaction is a natural outcome,” he said.
“The same thing is happening on the Twitter accounts being run in his [Khan’s] name. If the DG ISPR has given any reaction to it, then I believe it was a very measured reaction.”
Khan, who was ousted after a parliamentary vote of confidence in April 2022, blames the country’s powerful military for removing him from power by colluding with his political opponents. Both deny the allegations.
The former prime minister, who has been in prison since August 2023 on a slew of charges he says are politically motivated, also alleges his party was denied victory by the army and his political rivals in the 2024 general election through rigging.
The army and the government both deny his allegations.
