Tag: Talks

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and UAE, the main facilitators of US-backed Karzai-Taliban peace talks, fear that the reconciliation process in Afghanistan is heading for a breakdown due to Obama administration's failure to extend certain guarantees to the Taliban, including a clearly laid down timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops.
These three key players in the Afghan conflict have now been trying for months for some sort of a breakthrough in the ongoing

HANOI: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday urged Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi to use his government's clout to get North Korea to return to nuclear disarmament talks.
During discussions on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Hanoi, Clinton also urged Yang to have China pressure North Korea to smooth the way for the Group of 20 summit in South Korea and improve ties with Seoul, a senior US State Department official told reporters.
"We conveyed today

WASHINGTON: The United States and its European allies are putting together a new offer for talks with Iran over its nuclear programme, but would include tougher conditions than those rejected by Iran last year, The New York Times reported.
The newspaper cited a senior US official as saying the Obama administration and its partners were "very close to having an agreement" on a position to present to Tehran. Iran has welcomed the offer of talks, which the Western powers want to

ISLAMABAD: The Taliban are negotiating a peace deal with a Pakistani tribe in the northwest, tribal elders said on Thursday, adding that the deal in this regard could give militants access to remote strategic areas on the Afghan border.
The talk of a deal between members of the Haqqani network - one of the most dangerous Taliban factions - and the Turi tribe in Kurram Agency is likely to raise concerns in the US, which has been demanding Pakistan get tough with the militants

KABUL
Mid-level Taliban insurgency commanders do not believe their leaders have begun tentative peace talks with the Afghan government, with many vowing on Friday not to give up the fight after nearly 10 years of war.
NATO and Afghan officials have confirmed preliminary contacts between President Hamid Karzai's government and the Taliban, although doubt surrounds when those contacts were made, who they were made with and what, if any, progress was made.
But insurgency

ROME: Global powers on Monday gave their backing to Afghanistan's efforts to negotiate with the Taliban and set conditions for the gradual handover of power from foreign troops to local security forces.
The high-level talks on Afghanistan in Rome brought together representatives from 46 countries and international organisations, including for the first time Iran and the OIC. "We want to go in this direction of a realistic aim which is sufficient stability for Afghanistan and

Madaris want the charter to be able to issue degrees
Question on how to move forward with legislation remains unresolved
ISLAMABAD:
As the procedure remains unclear even after a meeting on Thursday, the linking of five Boards of Ittehad-e-Tanzeemate-Madaris Pakistan (ITMP) with the Ministry of Education continues to get delayed, an investigation by the reporter revealed.
The government on Thursday announced the formulation of an agreement with the

Clinton reassures Abbas US efforts to coax Israeli PM into renewing a temporary ban on settlement building would continue 'until the very last minute'
SIRTE
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas was on Friday to seek the support of Arab leaders to quit peace talks after Israel adamantly refused to exend a freeze on settlement building in the West Bank.
Abbas, who arrived in the Libyan city of Sirte on Thursday, was to lay out his position on whether to continue US-backed