US Special Representative for Afghan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad has praised Prime Minister Imran Khan’s statement on Afghanistan.
“Greatly appreciate @ImranKhanPTI’s statement on #Afghanistan. His appeal for reduction of violence and policy against promoting internal conflict in other nations has potential to positively transform the region and give #Pakistan a leading role,” Khalilzad tweeted on Friday.
Describing the Afghan peace process a ‘historic opportunity’ for peace in the region, Prime Minister Imran Khan had on Thursday said that Pakistan was fully supporting the process and would not be a party to any internal conflict in Afghanistan anymore. “Afghanistan conflict has brought great suffering for both Afghanistan and Pakistan over the last 40 years. Now, after a long wait, the Afghan peace process presents a historic opportunity for peace in the region and Pakistan is fully supporting the process including the next logical step of Intra-Afghan Dialogue wherein Afghans will themselves decide upon the future of their country,” he had said in a statement issued by the PM Office.
Recently, Kabul has been extremely indignant at what it sees as Islamabad’s ‘interference’ in Afghanistan’s affairs, having recalled its ambassador twice over a statement from Prime Minister Khan regarding a possible interim setup in Afghanistan while a peace is brokered.
Pakistan has been playing a key role in the Afghan peace process, helping US President Donald Trump keep an election promise of withdrawing US military presence from Afghanistan. On the surface, the talks seem to be progressing to the satisfaction of both sides – the US and the Taliban – but the incumbent Afghan regime has largely been excluded from several rounds of negotiations, and hostilities between Kabul and the Taliban show no signs of abating.