Pakistani prime minister urges Afghan Taliban to join peace talks

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REPORTING FROM ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN -- Pakistani Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gilani on Friday urged Afghan Taliban insurgents to take part in peace talks, an appeal that appeared aimed at dispelling doubts about Islamabad’s commitment to reconciliation efforts by Kabul and Washington to end 10 years of war in Afghanistan.

Islamabad’s role in finding a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Afghanistan is crucial, largely because top Taliban leaders are believed to be based in Pakistan. However, it is Pakistan’s powerful military and its premier spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, that hold sway over policies in Afghanistan, and it remains to be seen whether Gilani’s remarks are in line with the military’s outlook.

‘I would like to appeal to the Taliban leadership as well as to all other Afghan groups,’ Gilani said in Islamabad, ‘to participate in an intra-Afghan process for national reconciliation and peace.’

Gilani added that he hoped the Taliban leadership ‘will respond positively to my appeal and agree to enter into direct negotiations in the framework of an intra-Afghan process for reconciliation and peace in Afghanistan. Pakistan on its part will support such an authentic Afghan process, and is prepared to do whatever it can for its success.’

Gilani’s remarks come a week after Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited Islamabad in hopes of securing an assurance from Pakistan that it would facilitate talks between Afghan officials and the Afghan Taliban leadership. Afghan government leaders believe that Pakistan could be useful by providing access to Afghan Taliban leaders enjoying sanctuary in Pakistan.

Though in the past Pakistani leaders have publicly backed the reconciliation process, they have expressed concerns that the drive toward negotiations has hewed a U.S. agenda and has not been Afghan-led. They also have dismissed the notion that they can bring top Afghan Taliban leaders, including the insurgency’s chief, Mullah Mohammed Omar, to the negotiations table.

In recent months, U.S. officials have been meeting with Taliban envoys to work out the establishment of a Taliban office in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar. Karzai has also said the U.S. and Afghan governments have started secret talks with the Afghan Taliban insurgency, though a Taliban spokesman denied that claim.

Efforts to negotiate with Afghan Taliban leaders are complicated by the belief in Kabul and Washington that Pakistan’s intelligence community continues to actively support Afghan Taliban insurgents.

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