High-level joint commission: Kabul upbeat after talks on Taliban

Karzai said Pakistan is more willing than before to play a role in Afghanistan’s peace process


Agencies June 13, 2011

KABUL: Pakistan is more willing than before to play a role in Afghanistan’s tentative peace process with the Taliban, Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s top officials said on Sunday after a visit to Islamabad. Karzai, who met Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, called on the Pakistani government to help Taliban rebels take part in any peace negotiations, said Mohammad Masoom Stanikzai, secretary of a peace council set up by Karzai. “During the talks, the message of the Afghan government was very clear,” he said. “The message was that those (rebels) who want to join the peace process and reconcile should be facilitated and the means should be prepared for them in order to enable them to join the negotiations,” he added. But those who do not want to join the reconciliation process “must be dropped... No room should be left (for them to) arrange and organise and encourage people to fight and continue the war.” State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar told Afghan channel TOLOnews that Pakistan is prepared to act honestly for peace and stability in Afghanistan, adding that a peaceful Afghanistan is

in the interest of Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 13th, 2011.

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