IANS | 16 Oct, 2017
Senior Foreign Ministry
representatives from the US, Pakistan, China and Afghanistan are meeting
in the Omani capital on Monday to revive peace talks between the Afghan
government and the Taliban.
The Pakistan team, led by Foreign
Secretary Tehmina Janjua, is participating in the four-nation
Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) talks, that will attempt to
revive talks with the Taliban to bring a negotiated peace settlement in
the war-torn country.
According to Tolo News, the quadrilateral
meet will hold talks on implementing commitments, especially Pakistan's
promises, regarding fighting terrorism.
Afghan Foreign Ministry
spokesman Shekib Mustaghni said in addition to discussions on
commitments, the delegates will also share ideas on counter-terrorism
efforts.
The sixth quadrilateral meeting on Afghanistan is being resumed after a break of one year.
From
Afghanistan, in addition to the Deputy Foreign Minister, a
representative from the High Peace Council (HPC) will also attend at the
meeting.
"The meeting is aimed to review Pakistan's commitments
on talks (peace) that had been made at previous meetings," said
Mustaghni.
According to Tolo, the previous five quadrilateral
meetings saw a road map outlined for peace, but after the meetings,
Pakistan was accused of not fulfilling its promises and the follow up
meeting was delayed for one year.
Afghan Senate members said they are not hopeful of any positive result emerging from the meeting.
"Government should make it clear when we will see the results of such meetings," senator Abdul Rahman Achakzai said.
The
first quadrilateral meet was held between Afghanistan, Pakistan, China
and US on the sidelines of the Heart of Asia Summit in 2015, and
following that, four other meetings were held in Kabul and Islamabad.
This
is the first meeting of the quadrilateral after Afghan Taliban chief
Mullah Akhtar Mansoor's death in a US drone strike in Balochistan in May
2016.
The talks in Oman also come after Pakistan said last week
that India's "controversial role" in Afghanistan is not in the interest
of regional stability and not acceptable to Pakistan.