And the formidable headwinds
The Quadrilateral Cooperation Group (QCG) comprising Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States, and China held its first meeting in January 2016 and the fifth and last one in May 2016. The quadrilateral process was aimed at bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table and Pakistan was supposed to play the major role. The process faced two problems. First, the Taliban remained reluctant to come to the table in any of the five meetings. Second the acrimony between Kabul and Islamabad continued unabated. The process ended with the increase in terrorist attacks in Afghanistan which led Kabul to lose interest in the dialogue. President Ghani maintained that Afghanistan was facing an undeclared war from Pakistan
The killing of Mullah Mansour has reduced Pakistan’s influence on the Afghan Taliban. What is more the group controls a larger area in the country than ever after Taliban’s overthrow in December 2001. This year the network has launched some of its deadliest attacks in including the one inside a military hospital in Kabul and on an army compound in Balkh province. The Taliban have refused to talk to the Afghan government till the recall of all US troops from Afghanistan.
The Quadrilateral moot in Muscat is taking place after more than a year. The FO spokesman says the objective of the talks is to bring the Afghan warring factions to negotiating table. Can Pakistan perform the Houdini act that it failed to do last year? Afghan CEO Abdullah Abdullah repeats what President Ghani has maintained since May last year i.e., relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan should be the focus of the moot.
The visit by the COAS to Kabul we were told had worked miracles. But has it? The hope that it would be followed by President Ghani’s visit to Pakistan remains unfulfilled. . Afghanistan has put up two new demands meanwhile: handing over of the Afghan Talban leaders currently in Pakistan’s custody and opening the road from Wagha to Torkham for trade between Afghanistan and India. It remains to be seen how the new round of talks resolves the roadblocks.
