Afghan chief executive casts doubt on Pakistan’s role in peace process

Abdullah Abdullah says he has suspicions over PM Nawaz's 'refusal' to act against Afghan Taliban

ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan Chief Executive Dr Abdullah Abdullah has said he has suspicions over Pakistan’s role in the peace process after PM Nawaz Sharif’s 'refusal' to act against Afghan Taliban.

He was commenting on the premier’s remarks that Pakistan could not bring Taliban to the negotiating table "and be asked to kill them at the same time."

“We heard Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif clearly on fight and peace talks with Taliban. If Pakistan cannot fight insurgency, we cannot trust they would not support insurgents," he said while addressing Afghan Council of Ministers on Tuesday. "We are not sure they will encourage the Taliban to peace."



Abdullah’s remarks indicate the two-headed National Unity Government is in no mood to end the deadlock in the negotiations with the Taliban that Pakistan had brokered in early July.

Afghanistan’s revelation of Mullah Omar’s death derailed the first ever direct talks with the Taliban in 14 years.

"Trust-building is the key in relations with Pakistan but the recent comments and no intention of fighting terrorism in Pakistan does not take us anywhere," Abdullah said.



“We ask them again to fight insurgency without any exceptions. Terrorists support nobody but their own ultimate goals that harm all of us,” the Afghan leader asserted.

The chief executive added that terrorist groups should not be used as a “tool for achieving policy goals but there should be joint fight [against] these groups."

A senior Pakistani diplomat had earlier made it clear that Pakistan could not fight “others' war on own soil,” in a reference to Kabul’s repeated demands for action against the Afghan Taliban.



Earlier, the premier while addressing an American think-tank in Washington had conveyed to President Ashraf Ghani that “if he desires, we are prepared, to assist in reviving the talks between Kabul and the Afghan Taliban.”

Taliban chief addresses commanders

As the Afghan government remained unwilling to talk to Taliban, the group’s chief on Tuesday urged their military commanders to continue their “victorious operations.”

“The enemy is nervous, its ranks [are] disjointed and [it] has lost all morale and belief in itself. Mujahideen should utilise these moments to deliver heavy blows to the enemy to achieve further victories in the fields and wrestle free our country from the menace of occupation and corruption,” Mullah Akhtar Masnoor said in his address.