Pakistan seriously tries to bring Taliban to negotiation table

Pakistan is making sincere efforts in bringing the Taliban militant group to the negotiations table with the Afghan government to achieve lasting peace in the country, Khawaja Asif, the defense minister of Pakistan said.

“It is joint effort making it possible to achieve lasting peace in Afghanistan and we do anything that on our part to bring the different stakeholders on the table. We are planning to arrange another meeting. Things are moving in a right direction. This is a very delicate situation but Pakistan is a part of these efforts and Pakistan is keenly and sincerely making efforts that the Taliban is brought at the table,” Asif said on the sidelines of the fifth Moscow Conference on International Security.

Formed in the 1990s, the Taliban seeks to enforce Sharia law in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan. The group is known for numerous terrorist attacks against authorities and civilians in both countries.

Pakistan is mediating peace talks between Afghan authorities and the Taliban insurgency. Pakistan hosted the first round of direct talks last summer, suspended over the 2013 death of Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

Members of the Taliban and Afghan government leaders were expected to engage in peace talks in Pakistan in March. However, 5, Taliban leadership announced refusal to attend peace talks until foreign soldiers left Afghanistan and Taliban fighters were released.

In the meantime, former president Hamid Karzai blames the US for failing to execute a smooth transition after defeating the Taliban and Al Qaeda in 2001, and says that overcoming terrorism is impossible – unless Washington confronts radicalism among its own allies.

” it is a sad story. Unfortunately, Afghanistan did not see security the way we should have. After the United States and its allies’ intervention, after the tragic events of 9/11 the Afghan people joined hands with the Americans to free Afghanistan from that creeping invasion from our neighbor to the east. That freedom, that liberation came very quickly. All the terrorist elements, the so-called Al-Qaeda – all of them were driven out.” Ex-president Hamid Karzai said.

This comes as Russia and Afghanistan are set to create a military-technical cooperation committee and to pool efforts in the fight against international terrorism.

The Afghan and Russian defense ministers want “to combine their efforts in the fight against international terrorism,” acting Afghan Defense Minister Mohammed Masoom Stanekzai said.