In a bid to give thrust to the ‘sluggish’ Afghan reconciliation process, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States on Wednesday discussed the provision of safe passage to Taliban leaders to participate in the peace talks and agreed that these militant representatives would be given guarantee of security and facilitation in travel.
The crucial exploratory talks on provision of safe passage to the Taliban leaders were held at the Foreign Office with senior diplomats and security officials from Islamabad, Kabul and Washington taking part in the negotiations.
The talks focused on evolving “mechanisms” on how to provide the Taliban leaders, nominated for peace dialogue by their top leadership, with the safe passage so that they could take part in negotiations without any fear and concern about their security, according to officials privy to the meeting. “The inaugural meeting of the Safe Passage Working Group was held today at Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Islamabad. The Trilateral Core Group of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States in its meeting at Islamabad on 7 April 2012 had agreed to establish this working group,” said Foreign Office spokesman Moazzam Khan.
“Delegations from Kabul, Washington and Islamabad participated in today’s meeting and agreed to continue further discussions aimed at promoting peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan,” he said. Another Foreign Office official said it was decided at the meeting that the Taliban representatives would be fully facilitated in the relevant countries as for the issuance of visas and other logistics meant for their travel were concerned. “The Taliban leaders would be given guarantee that their travel and stay in various countries during the peace negotiations would be safe and secure,” he said. He said that it was a good positive start and we hoped that in coming meetings of the group all the three sides would be able to achieve their shared goal.
