KABUL: (MEP) A meeting of the Quadrilateral Coordination Committee (QCC) aimed at reviving the Afghan peace process talks opened Monday morning in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.
The QCC interaction ─ comprising Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States ─ reflects an important consensus on the roadmap for peace talks. The meeting will not include the Taliban.
Sartaj Aziz, who is Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s foreign policy adviser, addressed the opening session.
He said the talks aimed to outline efficient procedures which will provide a basis for smooth functioning of the group.
He emphasised the importance of not attaching pre-conditions to start of the negotiating process. “This, in our view, would be counter-productive.”
“Threat of the use of military action against irreconcilables cannot proceed the offer of talks to all the groups and their response to such offers.”
“Distinction between reconcilable and irreconcilables and how to deal with the irreconcilables can follow once the avenues for bringing them to the table have been exhausted,” he elaborated.
Senior representatives from Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, and the United States are taking part in the talks.
Afghanistan is represented by its Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai and Pakistan by its Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry.
The U.S. and China are represented by their special envoys for Afghanistan and Pakistan region.
Renewed peace efforts come amid expansion of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, especially during the past year which has fueled regional and international concerns the upcoming spring fighting season may lead to even more bloodshed and instability in the war-shattered country.
The Monday meeting was agreed last month during Pakistani Army Chief General Raheel Sharif’s visit to Kabul.
Meanwhile, Pakistan is expected to present a list of Taliban representatives willing to negotiate with Kabul at the meeting today, Javid Faisal, deputy spokesman to the Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, said on Sunday.
He said Pakistan’s list would include Taliban members who were and were not willing to participate in talks with Kabul on ending the 15-year war.
Some regional analysts say Pakistan could be important in the Afghan peace process. “Pakistan has a vital role in these talks and it must play its role now as the Afghan government doesn’t have the capacity to bring the Afghan Taliban to the table for talks,” Pakistan-based defense analyst Saad M. Khan told VOA Deewa Radio.
Last summer, Islamabad hosted a meeting between Afghan and Taliban representatives, but the talks collapsed after the announcement of the death of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
