Sartaj Aziz flies to Afghanistan to invite Karzai

Aziz reiterats Islamabad's support for an "Afghan-led" peace process with the Taliban.


Afp July 21, 2013
PML-N leader Sartaj Aziz. PHOTO: EXPRESS

KABUL: Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz flew to Afghanistan on Sunday to invite President Hamid Karzai to Islamabad as part of a charm offensive designed to improve strained relations and help peace efforts with the Taliban.

Aziz is the most senior member of Pakistan's new government to visit Afghanistan.

"I have brought a message of cordiality and goodwill for Afghanistan," Aziz told a news conference in Kabul.

"The main purpose of my visit, as some of you may know, is to convey a formal invitation from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to President Karzai to visit Pakistan."

Around 100,000 US-led foreign troops fighting the Taliban are due to leave Afghanistan next year just months after Afghanistan presidential elections in April.

Karzai is ineligible to run for re-election after serving a maximum two terms.

"We wish Afghanistan a success for those two important milestones," Aziz said, reiterating Islamabad's support for an "Afghan-led" peace process with the Taliban.

"For us, a peaceful, stable and united Afghanistan is in the interest of Pakistan," he added, calling for a "close relationship" with Afghanistan.

The West considers Pakistan's support vital to achieving lasting peace with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

But relations between the two neighbours are mired in mutual distrust and accusations over the Taliban violence which plagues both countries.

Nawaz kept the foreign affairs portfolio under his own control after winning the May general election. But Aziz, an elder statesman who served as a minister in the 1990s, is effectively the foreign minister.

Taliban office in Qatar

Earlier this week Karzai's chief of staff Karim Khorram claimed that a Taliban office which recently opened in Qatar was part of a plot to break up Afghanistan, orchestrated by either Pakistan or the United States.

Pakistani officials have said that Aziz's talks in Kabul will focus on ways to promote reconciliation in Afghanistan since the Doha office opened on June 18.

It was initially hailed as a first step towards a peace deal after 12 years of war, but a furious Karzai slammed the office as an unofficial embassy for a Taliban government-in-exile.

The Taliban have since claimed to have temporarily closed the office, blaming "broken promises" by the Afghan government and the United States.

COMMENTS (16)

cameron | 10 years ago | Reply you have a wonderful blog the following! would you like to develop invite posts on my weblog?
Logari | 10 years ago | Reply

@shahid Person like Karzai should be left alone for a year or so, till end of 2014, and then see that RAT run for cover

Kid you dont know about politics dont get into it else you will get personal then you start insulting a honorable and repsected leader of a great and brave nation!

I am just surprised how ET release your comments which tells us about your black heart full of hate and the like of it. Mr Karzai will not run anywhere he will stay there after 2014 you dont have to worry and count the days. Worst case scenario if he run then it is not something new, we saw many of pakistani leaders ran away to UK USA Arab and other countries so dont make it a big drama now!

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