Pakistan cautions Kabul on Taliban peace hopes
Associated Press
ISLAMABAD
Pakistan told Afghanistan on Friday it was “preposterous” to think Islamabad could deliver the Taliban’s leader to the negotiating table and warned the neighboring nation against “ridiculous” expectations about peace talks.
The public comments by Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar were an unusually harsh upbraiding for the diplomatic world, where such quarrels usually play out behind closed doors. They reflected Pakistan’s anger at repeated allegations by Afghanistan and the U.S. that it is harboring the Taliban’s leadership on its territory.
Khar spoke after talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan in Islamabad that were supposed to identify specific steps Pakistan would take to facilitate peace negotiations, but ended in apparent acrimony.
It was a serious setback for a peace process that the United States is strongly promoting as a way to end the decade-old Afghan conflict and allow it to withdraw most of its combat troops by 2014 without the country’s further descending into chaos.
The foreign minister said Pakistan supports an Afghan-led peace process but cautioned against Kabul’s expecting too much in terms of Islamabad’s ability to provide them access to the Taliban’s leaders.
Pakistan is seen as key to the process because much of the Taliban leadership, including chief Mullah Omar, is believed to be based in the country, and the government has historical ties with the group.