Daily Times

Kabul: Afghan Presidential Palace has said that Pakistan should suppress the irreconcilable groups; otherwise Afghanistan would not participate in the upcoming quartet peace meeting, Afghan media reported.

Presidential Citadel declared that Pakistan has earlier committed to take military measures against the insurgent groups to attend the negotiation table, reported ANT News on Sunday.

“The previous quartet meeting has decided to take serious measures against any group that not attend the peace meeting; but if the Pakistan does not stand by its commitments we will not participate to the meeting,” Dawa Khan Mina Pal, President’s deputy spokesman said.

Top diplomats of four nations (Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and United States) sat down together for the fourth time to explore options to bring the mired Afghan peace process back on track which came to an abrupt halt in Kabul on February 23, 2016.

Taking note of the joint statement on the outcome of the previous meetings of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG), the group reviewed progress in the implementation of the Roadmap for the Afghan-led, Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process.

Previously, Pakistan has said that bringing Taliban to negotiating table needs concerted efforts; clarifying that serious efforts for peace in Afghanistan have been made in the past but joint efforts are now required to bring the Afghan Taliban to the table to resume dialogue.

Pakistan has always said that its country alone is not responsible to bring the Afghan Taliban on the table for dialogue.

Pakistan had hosted a meeting between the Afghan Government and Afghan Taliban representatives in Murree on 7 July 2015 along with the representatives from China and USA.

The participants were duly mandated by their respective leadership and expressed their collective desire to bring peace to Afghanistan and the region.

The second round of the talks, which was scheduled to be held in Pakistan on 31 July 2015 was postponed in view of the reports regarding the death of Mullah Omar and the leadership crisis among Taliban.