PESHAWAR (Pajhwok): Pakistan has urged Afghan leaders to try to quickly achieve a negotiated settlement with the Taliban to stop the further escalation in violence.
At a news conference in Islamabad on Friday, National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf said the Taliban’s swift territorial gains underlined the need for expediting the peace process.
The NSA said: “Trust me, if they sit down, they will be able to come out with some sort of settlement and we will respect whatever Afghans decide.”
He warned history would judge them poorly if they did put all efforts behind a political settlement in Afghanistan, where more than a dozen provincial capitals fell to the Taliban in the past two months.
Pakistan could only facilitate the peace process in Afghanistan, but could not be a guarantor, the official explained. “Everybody needs to respect what Afghans decide politically.”
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