US, Taliban to enforce peace pact, hopes Pakistan

PESHAWAR (Pajhwok): The United States of America and Taliban will continue to comply with their last year’s peace pact, Pakistan’s foreign minister hopes.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi, at a meeting with Qatar’s Special Envoy Dr Mutlaq bin Majed Al-Qahtani in Islamabad on Monday, said: “Progress on the implementation of the US-Taliban peace agreement would be maintained.”

Adherence to the accord, signed on Feb. 28, 2020, would pave the ground for a negotiated settlement to the conflict in Afghanistan, he believed.

The agreement, which led to the start of the long-awaited intra-Afghan dialogue in September last year, envisages the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan by May 1.

“Collective efforts to achieve lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan would bear fruit,” the foreign minister hoped.

Dr Qahtani also met Chief of the Army Staff Gen. Qamar Bajwa at the General Headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Matters of mutual interest, the regional security situation, cooperation in various fields and facilitation of the reconciliation process in Afghanistan were discussed,

Qatar played a key role by hosting the Taliban-US talks and the intra-Afghan dialogue. Taliban’s political office is also located in Doha.

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