Daily Times

IUS Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad has held talks with the Taliban political representatives in Qatar on ways to accelerate release of prisoners, start of the intra-Afghan dialogue and the full implementation of the agreement, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said on Thursday.

Taliban insist the US has not fulfilled its commitment to secure release of 5000 Taliban prisoners in accordance with their agreement signed in late February. They also accuse the US of violating the agreement by carrying out attacks on the Taliban positions.

Taliban had refused to take part in the intra-Afghan dialogue unless their 5000 prisoners are freed. The talks were scheduled to start on March 10.

Afghan government said on Thursday that a total of 933 Taliban prisoners have been released so far. A government spokesman Javid Faisal said 1,500 Taliban prisoners will be released in the coming days.

More can be released upon the start of the talks, Faisal said and urged the Taliban to resume release of Afghan security personnel off the list the government has shared.

Khalilzad has held talks with the Taliban political chief Abdul Ghani Baradar in the presence of Qatari Special Envoy for Counterterrorism and Mediation in Conflict Resolution Dr. Mutlaq al-Qahtani, according to Shaheen.

It is Khalilzad’s second meeting with the Taliban in less than a month amid a stalemate in the peace process as the Taliban have refused to join the talks involving Afghan leaders to decide a future political roadmap.

Earlier the State Department said ambassador Khalilzad will press the Taliban representatives for “full implementation of the U.S.-Taliban agreement.”

A State Department statement said the US envoy will also visit Islamabad and discuss the Afghan peace process with Pakistani officials.

Sources told Daily Times Khalilzad is likely to visit Pakistan on Friday that will be his second visit to the country in nearly three weeks.

He last visited Pakistan on April 14 along with Resolute Support Mission Commander General Scott Miller and in a meeting with Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa discussed the US ongoing efforts for a sustainable peace in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s military leaders reaffirmed their support for US efforts and renewed their commitment to act to advance a political settlement to the conflict, the US embassy had stated in a statement after the previous visit.

Meanwhile, Pakistan said on Thursday that the US-Taliban peace agreement has immense value in terms of its symbolism and substance for Afghanistan, the region and beyond.

“We hope it helps bring sustainable peace and stability to Afghanistan, which can be secured through successful Intra-Afghan negotiations. We hope that the Afghan parties would seize this historic opportunity and workout a comprehensive and inclusive political settlement for durable peace and stability in Afghanistan and the region,” Foreign Office spokesperson Aisha Farooqui said at weekly briefing.

She said Pakistan has facilitated Afghan Peace Process throughout U.S-Taliban negotiations and that the country has always maintained that there is no military solution to the Afghan conflict.

“We have encouraged all parties to conflict to resolve issues through negotiations and facilitated the prisoners release as a confidence building measure. All this was undertaken as a shared responsibility to facilitate establishment of peace in Afghanistan,” she said.

The spokesperson said the U.S.-Taliban peace agreement is a historic opportunity for the Afghan leadership to seize and resolve their mutual issues through an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process.

“We hope that the U.S.-Taliban deal is implemented in full which will lead to peace in Afghanistan,” she said.

The spokesperson said that projects under the multi-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will be completed in time despite the coronavirus pandemic.

“CPEC comprises long-term projects whose completion, in many a cases, is spread over many years. We are quite confident that we will be able to complete CPEC projects in time and, going forward, the short-term impact of corona virus will be counterbalanced by effective and swift mobilization of resources for timely completion of CPEC,” she said.

Replying to a question at weekly briefing as to how much COVID-19 has slowed down or affected the CPEC projects, she said coronavirus has now become a pandemic and international community is taking swift and aggressive measures to contain its spread.

To another question about the assistance, monetary and logistical support Pakistan has received from China since the outbreak of COVID-19, she said China has extended tremendous support to Pakistan to fight the pandemic since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Pakistan.

“Chinese government has so far provided us 4 million U.S. dollars in cash donations, in addition to 390 ventilators, 330,000 testing kits, 830,000 N95 masks, 5.8 million surgical masks, 42,000 protective suits, and millions of other PPEs,” the spokesperson said.

Pakistan is one of the countries hit by the coronavirus.

As of Thursday, 564 people with COVID-19 have died in Pakistan, while 24,073 coronavirus cases in the country are confirmed, according to official data.

The spokesperson said Pakistan also received critical medical supplies including a vast quantity of disposable surgical masks, KN-95 masks, testing kits, protective clothing and portable ventilators from People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and Three Gorges Corporation. PLA has also sent a medical team to Pakistan to assist us to control Covid-19.

“A team of Chinese medical experts also visited Pakistan on the instructions of President Xi Jinping to assist us to contain the pandemic. The team stayed in Pakistan from March 28 till April 17 and visited various provinces of Pakistan to strengthen their capacity to fight Covid-19,” she said.

She said Chinese doctor’s experience has greatly helped Pakistan understand COVID-19 and find better and practical ways to deal with it.

Besides the official assistance, the Jack Ma Foundation has provided two batches of medical supplies over 500,000 face masks including N95 masks and a number of ventilators.

“Moreover provincial governments, chambers, and private corporations in China have donated a lot of vital medical equipment to our provinces and institutions. We are grateful for the Chinese assistance that has helped us effectively deal with COVID-19,” the spokesperson said.

When asked about the next meeting of the trilateral forum involving Afghanistan, China and Pakistan, she said the trilateral mechanism is an important platform and Pakistan has always participated in its meetings and supported its outcomes.

“We are in touch with Chinese as well Afghan sides on holding of next meeting,” she said following reports that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in his recent telephone conversation with his acting Afghan counterpart Haneef Atmar said that his country is willing to hold China-Afghanistan-Pakistan foreign ministers’ dialogue to push forward cooperation among the three countries.