Islamabad - Emphasising that peace in Afghanistan is vital for regional peace, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa told a US delegation on Sunday that Pakistan despite constraints has contributed to all efforts for regional peace and would continue to do so.
According to a statement issued by ISPR, the Army Chief told this to a top-level US military delegation led by Commander US CENTCOM General Joseph L Votel in a meeting at GHQ in which geo-strategic environment, regional security and Afghanistan peace and reconciliation process were discussed.
It further said that General Joseph L Votel appreciated Pakistan Army’s efforts for regional peace and stability.
The development is significant and follows a meeting on January 17 when US special representative Zalmay Khalilzad also met the Army Chief at the GHQ, Rawalpindi to discuss Afghan peace and reconciliation.
Tweeting from Pakistan, Zalmay Khalilzad said the United States was determined to address “legitimate concerns” of all sides in the conflict in Afghanistan to achieve peace.
“I see that many are concerned that the United States is willing to both talk and fight. Let me be clear: the US wants peace,” Ambassador Khalilzad said.
“To achieve peace, we are ready to address legitimate concerns of all Afghan sides in a process that ensures Afghan independence and sovereignty, and accounts for legitimate interests of regional states,” Khalilzad said.
He called for insurgents to agree to a ceasefire, and warned that US troops would hit back if they came under attack from the Taliban. “Urgent that fighting end. But pursuing peace still means we fight as needed,” the US envoy underscored in his messages via Twitter.
Zalmay Khalilzad, who had extended his stay in Pakistan for a day hoping for talks with the Taliban representatives in Islamabad, flew out yesterday without any meeting.
During his visit to Islamabad from January 17-20 – as a follow-up on discussions held in December – Zalmay Khalilzad met Prime Minister Imran Khan, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua, and members of the diplomatic corps in Islamabad.
“During the consultations, both the sides reaffirmed their commitment to advance the Afghan peace process. Ambassador Khalilzad highlighted that all countries in the region will benefit from peace in Afghanistan,” said a US embassy statement.
Pakistan and the US are making efforts to convince the Afghan Taliban for talks with all the stakeholders including the Afghan government.
Amid the struggle to bring Taliban on the talks table, Khalilzad extended his stay in Pakistan for a day. He was originally scheduled to travel back on January 19.
The decision to hold the next round of talks between the US and Afghan Taliban in Islamabad was taken on January 18 during a meeting between the US envoy and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
Khalilzad, who arrived in Pakistan a day ago as part of his four-nation tour, told Qureshi that the US leadership valued Pakistan’s efforts for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan. Following his meeting with the foreign minister, the US envoy also met Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The Afghan Taliban said that they were not prepared to resume meetings with Khalilzad in Islamabad and repeated their refusal to deal directly with the Afghan government.
Senior Taliban leaders said that regional powers including Pakistan had approached them and wanted them to meet the US delegation in Islamabad and also include the Afghan government in the peace process but that the approaches had been rejected.
“We wanted to make it clear that we will not hold any meeting with Zalmay Khalilzad in Islamabad,” Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement.
Last week, Prime Minister Imran Khan held talks with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani over the telephone. President Ghani made a telephone call to Prime Minister Khan to discuss the recent efforts for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan when Zalmay Khalilzad was in Islamabad to meet Pakistani counterparts.
Prime Minister Imran Khan assured President Ghani that Pakistan was making sincere efforts for a negotiated settlement of the conflict in Afghanistan through an inclusive peace process as part of shared responsibility, it added.