KABUL: Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation, started his three-day visit to Pakistan on Monday to seek regional cooperation to strengthen the Afghan peace process, a top official told Arab News.
Abdullah arrived in Pakistan on Prime Minister Imran Khan’s invitation while talks between senior Taliban leaders and Afghan officials are underway in Doha, Qatar, to chart out an agreement over the future political roadmap for Afghanistan and end a decades-old conflict in the war-torn country.
“The goal of the trip is to seek regional cooperation for the strengthening of the peace process, bilateral relations, regional consensus and requesting cooperation and assistance to bear fruit for peace and cease aid for terroristic groups,” Faraidoon Khawzoon, Abdullah’s spokesman said on Sunday.
While the negotiations between the Taliban and Afghan government have failed to make any headway since their start two weeks ago, Khawzoon said that Abdullah’s trip had “no link with the stalemate in the talks.”
The talks were initially set to take place in March based on a historic peace deal signed between Washington and the Taliban in February, which paves the way for a complete withdrawal of US-led foreign troops from Afghanistan by next year’s spring.
Torek Farhadi, a former adviser for the Afghan government, said that with US President Donald Trump pushing for a negotiated settlement with the Taliban, Pakistan wants to “play a positive role” in ensuring stability in the neighboring country so that millions of Afghan refugees residing on its soil could return home.
“With every deadlock in peace talks such as the current one in Qatar, Pakistan gets a chance to exhibit its influence on Afghan affairs if it can reason the Taliban for some compromise,” he told Arab News. “Pakistan will work in time toward stability in Afghanistan with a friendly government in Kabul.”
During a phone call with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Friday, PM Khan urged all Afghan stakeholders to seize the “historic opportunity” of intra-Afghan talks and work toward an inclusive and comprehensive political agreement.
He added that Pakistan would fully support the decisions made by the Afghan people regarding their future and emphasized “the importance of all Afghan parties working for reduction in violence leading to cease-fire.”
Ahead of Abdullah’s trip, Pakistan’s Foreign Office said in a statement on Sunday that the visit “will contribute to further strengthening amity, brotherhood and close cooperation between the two countries.”
