Pakistan gets the driver’s seat in Afghan peace process

After years of reluctance, the US has finally agreed to give Pakistan a role of the leading facilitator in the Afghan reconciliation process, a significant development that would help persuade the Taliban to hold peace negotiations with the Afghan government and the US authorities.
In previous years, the US had kept Pakistan out of the loop and even the covert talks between Taliban leaders and US officials in Qatar, which broke down early last year, were also held without taking Islamabad into confidence. However, it is no more the case and now the Obama administration has reconciled to the fact that without a key role by Pakistan, the Afghan reconciliation process would yield very little or no results, said a diplomatic sources privy to the latest developments on the front of peace plan for Afghanistan.
The US authorities are now urging Islamabad to impress upon the Afghan Taliban to join the reconciliation process, as that would facilitate the success of its exit strategy of 2014 for its troops stationed in the neighbouring country. According to the sources, Pakistan also believed that continuity of war and violence in Afghanistan would harm its own peace and stability and it was in close contact with other friendly states and facilitators in the Afghan peace dialogue, like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE, over the matter.
“The release of around 26 Taliban leaders, including key figures like Mullah Nooruddin Turabi and Anwarul Haq Mujahid, by Islamabad in the last couple of months shall be seen as Pakistan playing a major supportive role for the success of peace efforts in Afghanistan,” a source said on condition of anonymity. He said that in the coming days, Islamabad would release some more Taliban prisoners as was announced recently, but the process would be carried out at a controlled pace.
“Pakistan would like to see the impact of release of Taliban prisoners on the top Taliban leadership and it would make further decisions in accordance with that,” he said. He said the release of Taliban prisoners by Islamabad was an important step, but he believed that the Taliban would also like to see the acceptance of their other important demands, such as removal of their names from the United Nations’ terrorists’ list and release of their senior leaders from the US prison in Guantanamo Bay. “Much depends on what the US does in the coming days to accept these two key demands and if that is done, it would help a lot in persuading the Taliban to come to the table of negotiations,” he said. Another diplomatic source, seeking anonymity, said Pakistan would play its due role for the peace in Afghanistan, but it was also necessary that the US and other stakeholders in the Afghan imbroglio came up with a clear policy for efforts aimed at peace and stability in the war-torn country. “Pakistan will not like to see a destabilised Afghanistan once again after the planned US exit, as that would not only be disastrous for Kabul but also harm peace and stability on this side of the border,” he added.