Pakistan, Taliban to resume peace talks in Turkey today

Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban will on Thursday meet in Turkey to resume talks aimed at reaching a long-term truce.

The last round of talks to resolve ongoing border tensions and reach a long-term peace agreement ended last week without any major announcement. Pakistan had said at the time that talks had “failed to bring about any workable solution”.

The Pakistani delegation arrived in Turkey’s Istanbul on Wednesday.

The Pakistani delegation is led by Lieutenant General Asim Malik, the chief of the Inte-Service Intelligence (ISI) spy agency, and Taliban’s delegation will be led by General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) chief Abdul Haq Waseq.

Last month, Pakistan and Taliban had worst clashes since the Islamists assumed power in Afghanistan in 2021. More than 70 people were killed and hundreds were injured. While tensions had been simmering for a long time, the immediate trigger was Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan, including in Kabul.

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Since Pakistani airstrikes, the two sides have clashed several times along the two countries’ disputed border. The Taliban have long rejected the Durand Line, which Pakistan treats as the border between the two countries.

Taliban & Taliban to hammer out details

Pakistan and Taliban’s negotiators are expected to hammer out the details of that mechanism and other issues concerning the implementation of the ceasefire in talks starting today in Turkey, according to AFP.

At the end of the previous round of talks, Turkey had said that Pakistan and Taliban had agreed to establish a “monitoring and verification mechanism” to maintain peace and penalise violators, the news agency reported.

Ahead of the Thursday’s talks, Pakistani military spokesperson said the military and intelligence services have the single agenda of ending terrorism with these talks .

A security official told Dawn that Pakistan has sought “concrete, verifiable guarantees”.

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Ahead of the delegation’s departure, Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said, “The delegation has gone today and the negotiations will begin tomorrow morning. Let’s hope Afghanistan makes use of wisdom and peace is restored in the region.”