Afghan Officials Urge Pakistan To Bring ‘10 Influential Taliban Leaders’ To Peace Talks: Reports
KABUL: (MEP) Afghan authorities have put up a list of 10 people from some influential leaders of the Taliban group to the Pakistani authorities so they could participate in the negotiation peace process in Islamabad.
An Afghan official who declined to be named, said China, Pakistan, and the United States in the fourth meeting of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) held on February 23, 2016, have invited the Afghan Taliban to participate in the possible negotiations which is set to hold in March.
“Offering a list to Islamabad, the government of Kabul urged the Pakistani officials to force these people to take part in the peace talks.” He pointed out.
The Afghan official told Radio Free Europe (RFE) the 10 Afghan Taliban leaders have a great influence on the group and their participation will lead to progress in the peace process.
According to the source, the 10 Taliban leaders are of different groups of the Haqqani Network and the Taliban group and the Afghan officials urged the Pakistani officials to bring them in the ‘likely’ negotiations table.
However, Naeem Wardak a spokesman for Taliban political office in Qatar, said that they are not aware of the peace plan and their preconditions on peace talks have not been changed.
Pakistan has offered to host the first round of direct talks between the Afghan government and Taliban representatives following the conclusion of the fourth round of Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) meeting on Tuesday.
