Peace in the region
Afghanistan is a troubled country, not just because of Taliban operating there but also because its governments appear to have little to none control of the country. Since the US-led NATO forces have taken to withdraw from the war-torn country, the Taliban have mounted pressure on the Afghan governments, first Hamid Karzai’s and now Ashraf Ghani’s, in way that any chances of peace in the region are scuttled right away. The recent attempt to bring both Taliban and Afghan government to negotiation table met the same fate when cross-border attacks in both Pakistan and Afghanistan invited blame-game from each side against the other.
Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan’s foreign policy advisor to PM, was in Afghanistan the other day and held meetings with the Afghan officials on resuming talks and putting an end to the blame-game. As media has reported, he seems optimistic claiming that both sides have agreed to end blame-game and create a positive environment to resume peace talks. Pakistan was already facilitating talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government when attacks in Afghanistan brought it to an abrupt halt, with the Afghan officials blaming Pakistan of not doing enough to influence Taliban and scuttling the peace process through a string of bomb blasts. Pakistan, on the other hand claims, that it cannot influence the Taliban, it can merely facilitate the dialogue process whereas the same has to be Afghanistan-led and Afghanistan-owned. In this context, Sartaj Aziz’s statement appears to be a good omen though there has been no confirmation from the Afghan side as of yet. There is every possibility that there are some powerful lobbies working to undo the peace process, as the Afghan side claims, but how strong they are and who has their backs remains to be seen.
There is no other way peace in the region can take roots without positive talks, and talks won’t work with blame-game. Both Pakistan and Afghanistan have a lot at stake; they cannot afford to just resort to blame-game and lose sight of the long-term endgame. Peace is what they should aim at, and resuming talks is a first good step in that direction.
