The United States on Thursday welcomed Pakistan’s decision to release Afghan Taliban prisoners in an effort to help end the stalemate in the reconciliation process.
In an informal chat with The Express Tribune, the newly-appointed US Ambassador to Pakistan Richard Olson said Washington backed efforts by Islamabad and Kabul to seek a negotiated settlement of the decade-old conflict.
He said recent steps announced by the two neighbours to advance peace talks were encouraging and that the US would play its part to further strengthen this process.
Asked whether US would also release Taliban prisoners held up in Guantanamo Bay, Olson replied: “It is a hypothetical question.”
Another American diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Pakistan had finally backed its words with action by agreeing to release Taliban prisoners.
“I must say Pakistan has started playing a very positive role in the Afghan peace talks,” said the diplomat.
An Afghan official also described the outcome of a visit by high-powered Afghan delegation led by Salauddin Rabbani as unprecedented.
“Pakistan has fully cooperated with the High Peace Council and made certain commitments,” the official said.
He maintained that the two countries would work out a mechanism on how to use freed Taliban prisoners for the reconciliation process.
Though Pakistan agreed to release mid-ranking Taliban prisoners, more negotiations would be required on the fate of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, he added.
“Pakistan has certain reservations on Mullah Baradar and other senior Taliban leaders. They (Pakistanis) will analyze how their release can benefit them,” the Afghan diplomat maintained.
Kabul’s reaction
Meanwhile, the Afghan government welcomed Pakistan’s agreement to release several Taliban prisoners, but a Taliban official dismissed the move as irrelevant to the country’s peace process.
Details of the deal remained unclear a day after the agreement was reached at a meeting between the Pakistan government and Afghanistan’s High Peace Council in Islamabad.
“We welcome this move as a positive step toward Afghanistan’s peace process,” presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi said, declining to comment further.
A Taliban official, however, dismissed the deal as “just a symbolic gesture to show the world that something happened in this meeting”.
“All those that are being freed are not members of Taliban any more, they have been dismissed and they’re not important,” the Taliban official told AFP in northwest Pakistan.
He said the Taliban were not in contact with the Afghan government-appointed High Peace Council and any negotiations should take place between the Taliban and the United States.
The prisoners freed by Pakistan could play a role if they were sent back to the Taliban ranks rather than brought to Kabul, said Waheed Mujda, an analyst and former foreign ministry official during the Taliban regime.
“If they are released and brought to Kabul it will be meaningless and have no effect on the peace process. They will be just like dozens of other Taliban officials who live in Kabul and have no link to the Taliban,” Mujda told AFP.
WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM AFP
Published in The Express Tribune, November 16th, 2012.
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