Pakistan agrees to revive Afghan talks

Pakistan’s powerful Army Chief General Raheel Sharif Sunday held wide-ranging talks with Afghanistan’s top leadership on ways to revive stalled peace talks with the Taliban and agreed to hold a quadrilateral meeting between Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the US early next month on a comprehensive road map for “meaningful peace”.

Gen. Sharif, who arrived in Kabul met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and other civil as well as military leaders during day-long trip.

Pakistan Army spokesman Lt. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa in a series of tweets, said that both sides discussed coordinated counter-terrorism operations on respective sides and way forward for Afghan peace process.

He said the meetings reviewed the way forward in pushing forward the peace process in Afghanistan and agreed to continue work under the quadrilateral framework.

“With shared responsibility, all stakeholder to support and ensure success,” he said on the quadrilateral format of meeting between Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the US.

A quadrilateral meeting of Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States was held in Islamabad on December 9, on the sidelines of the Fifth Heart of Asia Ministerial Conference.

The first round of quadrilateral meeting will be held in 1st week of January to work out comprehensive road map for meaningful peace, Lt. Gen. Bajwa said without mentioning its venue. He said the process “would pursue peace & reconciliation with clear demarcation of responsibility of each stakeholder at all stages.”

He said the meeting agreed that that would pursue peace and reconciliation with Taliban groups.