Pakistan Hosting Taliban Leadership, Can Arrange Their Talks with Kabul: HPC

Afghanistan’s High Peace Council (HPC) says Pakistan which is hosting the Afghan Taliban leadership could bring the Taliban to a negotiating table with the Afghan government.

Sayed Ehsan Tahiri, a spokesman for HPC said that Islamabad has close ties with the Afghan Taliban and that has an important role to play in the Afghan peace process.

“There is no doubt that the leadership of Afghan Taliban is in Pakistan and the country is hosting the armed group’s leaders,” Tahiri said. “The role of Pakistan is very effective in this process.”

Following the issue, a delegation of HPC is expected to visit Pakistan on Tuesday and hold talks with Pakistani officials regarding the regional consensus on Afghan peace talks.

This comes as Afghan officials have repeatedly questioned sincerity of Pakistan towards the Afghan peace process, asserting that they have not seen signs of Pakistan’s cooperation regarding Afghanistan’s war and peace talk initiatives.

However, the High Peace Council said that Islamabad has recently changed its stand towards Kabul, apparently referring to the U.S. President Donald Trump’s letter to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, in November last year, in which he requested the country’s help to end the nearly two-decades long conflict in Afghanistan.