Neighbours’ support key to Afghan peace: Pakistani analysts

ISLAMABAD (PAN and Iran, some Pakistani political analysts said, adding the proposed trilateral meeting among heads of the three countries in Islamabad would discuss their role in the peace process.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar who travelled to Kabul on February 1 held talks with President Hamid Karzai on the ongoing peace process and threat posed to the neighbouring countries by terrorism.

She invited Karzai to attend a trilateral meeting among Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran in Islamabad in mid-February, the Presidential Palace in Kabul has said. Karzai had accepted the invitation.

Tahir Khan, a Pakistani political analyst and local journalist, said Pakistan had always backed Afghans-led peace process, which could succeed only when Pakistan was remained involved.

About the upcoming trilateral meeting, Khan said Pakistan sought a regional solution to the Afghan conflict after the Karzai administration was bypassed in the peace parleys between the Taliban and the US in Qatar.

He said the three countries wanted to adopt a separate policy on talks with the Taliban and they would discuss their role in the process at the meeting.

Iran and Pakistan could not be kept away from the peace process in Afghanistan, said Ayaz Wazir, another political analyst and former Pakistan’s foreign ministry official.

Both Pakistan and Iran had the ability to find a workable solution to the Afghan problem and without their support, the peace process would remain unsuccessful, Wazir believed.

The trilateral meeting is scheduled to take place in Islamabad, Pakistan foreign office spokesman, Abdul Basit, told Pajhwok Afghan News, but did not provide any date.

However, another government official said the meeting was likely to take place on February 16 or 17.

mas/ma

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