ISLAMABAD: Foreign Office on Friday confirmed that Pakistan will participate in Afghan peace conference to be held in Moscow next month.
In a weekly press briefing, Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakria however said Pakistan’s role and the extent of its participation are issues that have not been finalised. Whether the Afghan Taliban will participate in the conference or not remains unclear.
Spokesperson for the Foreign Office said that Pakistan had opened its borders with Afghanistan in a gesture of goodwill and stressed that Afghanistan should cooperate over issues related to border management.
He said that Pakistan would continue efforts to maintain peace in Afghanistan.
The Foreign Office rejected a human rights report by the US State department, adding that it ignores atrocities being committed in occupied Kashmir.
The Pak-Afghan border was opened at the Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif behest on Tuesday after 32 days. Thousands of individuals and cargo vehicles crossed the border through Torkham and Chaman.
Meanwhile, the United States said it won’t attend a multinational peace conference on Afghanistan next month in Russia.
A State Department official said Thursday that the US wasn’t consulted before receiving the invitation and doesn’t know Russia’s objectives for the gathering.
The official said that Washington wants to work with Moscow on regional efforts to end the 16-year war, and that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would bring up the matter when he visits Russia in April. The official wasn’t authorised to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity.
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, India and several Central Asian nations are among the invitees to the Moscow conference. Afghan and US officials say the Taliban aren’t invited. The State Department hasn’t publicly announced its position on the planned conference.
Last year, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the United States met to jump-start the peace process but that effort faltered.
The official said the US wants nations in the region, which have a shared interest in peace in Afghanistan, to increase pressure on the Taliban to negotiate with the Afghan government.
In Washington on Tuesday, Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani called for the US to add to the 8,400 troops currently in Afghanistan where the Taliban have stepped up attacks and the Islamic State group also poses a threat.
He said the Afghan government remains open to peace talks but doubted the Taliban would participate unless Pakistan cracked down on “terrorist safe havens” on its soil a long-running source of bitterness between the neighbouring countries.