Afghan officials pin hopes on Gen Raheel’s visit

Pakistani and Afghan officials say talks with Taliban could begin ‘within weeks’

KABUL:

Senior Afghan officials hope the upcoming visit of Pakistan’s army chief will not only provide an impetus to efforts for resurrecting a moribund peace process but also help mend fractured ties between the two neighbours.

Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif is likely to visit Afghanistan this week, Pakistani and Afghan sources told The Express Tribune. “Both sides have agreed that the visit should take place before December 30,” said one Kabul-based Afghan source.



A senior official in President Ashraf Ghani’s administration said Gen Raheel’s visit would have two dimensions. “The two sides will focus on ways to improve Pak-Afghan relations, and explore options for talks with the Taliban,” said the official who did not wish to be named.

“We will also touch upon the understanding reached during the recent ministerial meeting of the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process that envisages action against irreconcilable elements,” said the official, who was part of the Afghan delegation at the trilateral and quadrilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Heart of Asia conference in Islamabad. Officials from Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the United States attended these meetings.

“There is a window of opportunity over the next four months to push for peace because after that the Taliban would launch their so-called spring offensive which could create problems,” the Afghan official said.



Last week, President Ghani said the peace process should resume “in weeks not months”. And a section of the Afghan media quoted National Security Adviser Hanif Atmar as saying that talks could begin in “two to three weeks”.

A senior Pakistani official also said the resumption of talks should take “no longer than two weeks ... I would say the first week of January we will see the process restart again.”

He told Reuters that the current plan was for the meetings to be held in Pakistan. The aim was to bring Afghan and Pakistani leaders together with special representatives from China and the United States as well as Taliban representatives. “The understanding is that all stakeholders should be there, everyone with a stake in this,” said the official, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media on the issue.

Former Afghan army chief Gen Sher Muhammad Karimi said Monday that he was “optimistic about the outcome of Pakistan Army chief’s visit who has an important role in the peace process. “I hope Gen Raheel Sharif can encourage the Afghan Taliban to join the peace process,” he told The Express Tribune in Kabul.



Asked about opposition to Pakistan’s role in the peace talks from some quarters in Afghanistan, he said, “No one can deny Pakistan’s role. All roads to peace in Afghanistan run through Pakistan. We believe Pakistan has influence on the Taliban,” he added.

Pakistan’s Ambassador in Kabul Abrar Hussain said continued engagement between Islamabad and Kabul held the key to the success of the Afghan peace process. “This process could be slow, at times irritating … but a negotiated peace deal is the only option. It takes two to make peace, but only one to make war,” Hussain said at the opening session of a two-day unofficial Pak-Afghan dialogue in Kabul on Monday.

He also said there was a need to shun point-scoring and maligning each other. “Let us stop the blame game. It is cooperation, not confrontation, that will help us fight terrorism, poverty, hunger and disease,” he told the “Track 1.5/11 Beyond Boundaries.”

Britain’s Ambassador in Kabul Karen Pierce welcomed the track-II initiative, saying that as a friend of both Afghanistan and Pakistan the UK was a keen observer of peace negotiations between the two countries.

The initiative supported by the British government is organised by the Centre of Research and Security Studies in partnership with the Duran Research & Analysis, Afghanistan, and the Foundation for Integrated Development Action.


Published in The Express Tribune, December 22^nd, 2015.