ISLAMABAD - US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad will arrive here today (Tuesday) in the follow up of the US President Donald Trump letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan seeking Pakistan’s ‘support and facilitation’ in resolving the Afghan imbroglio.

Khalilzad will be travelling to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Belgium, the UAE and Qatar to push further the process to bring peace to the war-torn Afghanistan. He will complete his tour on December 20 and will fly back to Washington to furnish report to the US President.

The Foreign Ministry on Monday confirmed that the US President Donald Trump had sought Islamabad’s help in tackling the Afghan issue and to use its influence on warring Afghan militants to sit across the table and resolve the issue through negotiations.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has also confirmed receiving letter from the US President seeking his help in resolving the Afghan imbroglio by using its influence on some of the powerful warring factions of Afghan Taliban.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had responded positively to the letter and termed the move a leap forward toward resolving the Afghan conflict. He termed the development as positive for Pakistan because the peace and stability in Afghanistan will always be in the interest of Islamabad.

In a media interaction with senior journalists where he had disclosed receiving letter from US President, Imran Khan said that his position on Afghan issue was vindicated as from the day first he was of the view that solution to Afghan issue was in negotiations and no results could be achieved with use of force.

As part of the initiative, a month ago, on the request of the United States, Pakistan had already released some Taliban leaders to facilitate the backchannel negotiations going on between Taliban and Afghan government.

Political analysts keeping close eye on decades-long fighting in Afghanistan opined that the President Trump’s move showed that the US now wanted to pull out from this conflict between Afghan security forces and the Taliban who wanted to oust the foreign troops from Afghanistan.

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement read: “President Trump has also acknowledged that the war had cost both USA and Pakistan. He emphasised that Pakistan and USA should explore opportunities to work together and renew partnership.”

Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad’s arrival at the heels of US President’s letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan has a special significance as political and diplomatic circles would be seeing it as a major breakthrough in the Pak-US relations which were on bumpy track for quite sometimes, especially after Trump’s tweet levelling serious allegations against Pakistan.

During the visit, the US envoy will meet Pakistan’s civil and military leadership to discuss way forward on resolving the longstanding Afghan issue.

Khalilzad last visited the region in November, where he met with members of the Afghan civil society and other government officials.