Abdullah Abdullah, the Chairperson of Afghanistan High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR), met with Pakistani foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, on the sidelines of Antalya Diplomacy Forum (ADF) on June 18, said a press statement issued by the Pakistani foreign ministry.
The Pakistani foreign minister, as the statement read, reaffirmed his country’s policy of maintaining the broad engagement with Afghan political leadership to forge deeper mutual understanding on the bilateral relations and the Afghan peace process.
“The Foreign Minister highlighted Pakistan’s meaningful contribution to facilitate the direct talks between U.S. and Taliban as well as the Afghan parties. He reiterated that it was now up to the Afghan leaders to seize the historic opportunity afforded by the Intra-Afghan Negotiations for an inclusive, broad-based and comprehensive settlement. He urged the Afghan leaders to expedite progress in Intra-Afghan Negotiations for lasting peace in Afghanistan,” the statement said.
According to the statement the progress in the Afghan peace process was critical to reduce space for spoilers, who did not wish to see return of peace in the region. He underscored that negative statements and blame game only served to vitiate the environment and strengthen the hand of spoilers who wished to derail the peace process.
The Afghan peace talks which was supposed to resume in Turnkey in March 2021 has stalled as the Taliban militants continue to target Afghan security bases and district offices in the part of the country. The Afghan security and intelligence officials say the Taliban are interested in power and they try to waste time to put more pressure on the Afghan government.
