Afghan Millat party lends weight to 4-nation talks

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Afghan Millat political party on Wednesday put its weight behind the four-nation push to revive the stalled peace talks, saying it welcomed every step taken to achieve peace.

In a statement, the party, led by Abdul Qayum Arif, said unfortunately efforts made for peace during the past years did not bear clear results despite spending millions of dollars.

Keeping in mind the past experience, the Afghans remained unsure if Pakistan would be realistic in the peace process, but this time around the renewed push to revive the peace process was different from timing, conditions and mechanism perspectives, the Afghan Millat Party said.

Countries involved in the Afghanistan case had shown their interest and the quadrilateral coordination committee meetings involving the US, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan had raised hopes among the Afghans that Pakistan would be ready for cooperation, the party said.

The committee had so far held two meetings, with the first taking place in Islamabad and the second in Kabul. A third meeting of the group is scheduled for Feb 6 in Islamabad.

At the Kabul meeting last month, the group said in a joint statement the talks “made progress on a roadmap toward initiating peace talks with Taliban groups.”

The Afghan Millat party said people on both sides of the Durand Line had suffered a lot due to the conflict in Afghanistan and if Taliban’s safe havens and hideouts remained intact on the Pakistani side of the border and Islamabad did not initiate a peace dialogue with the Taliban like the Afghan Taliban, Afghanistan and the region would continue to face threats.

“It is better to insist on peace from Amu River to Abasin — a region we are trapped in an undeclared war with Pakistan. The war in Afghanistan is a proxy war of Pakistan and until peace is not made with Pakistan, the conflict in Afghanistan will continue.”

The political party said the Afghan government should hold direct talks with the Taliban, who could find an alternative country to shun reliance on Pakistan or join other groups including Islamic State.

The party urged the Afghan government to recognize the Taliban as its political opponents, provide them an address and appoint peace emissaries who had no role in the past conflicts.

The Afghan Millat party previously led by Anwarul Haq Ahadi parted ways with Ahadi after he formed his own political group.

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