ISLAMABAD – Pakistan
made its first public appeal Friday for the Taliban to participate in
peace talks with the Afghan government, a potentially significant move
given Islamabad's perceived influence over the militants.
The Pakistani prime minister was responding
to a request by Afghanistan's president for Islamabad to support the
peace process. Kabul wants Pakistan to facilitate access to Taliban
leaders believed to based on its soil, including chief Mullah Omar.
There are signs that momentum for peace
talks has been growing, especially with the Taliban move to set up a
political office in the tiny Gulf state of Qatar. But the group has said
it would prefer to negotiate with the United States, which has 100,000
troops in Afghanistan, rather than the Afghan government.
This sentiment has reportedly triggered
concern in Afghanistan and Pakistan that the neighboring countries could
be sidelined in the peace talks.
"I would like to appeal to the Taliban
leadership as well as to all other Afghan groups, including
Hizb-e-Islami, to participate in an intra-Afghan process for national
reconciliation and peace," Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
said
The prime minister's statement was
significant, but the country's powerful military and shadowy
intelligence agency are seen as the ones with influence over the
Taliban, not the civilian government.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently held
talks in Islamabad with Pakistan's civilian and military leaders about
the peace process.
He later issued a public statement saying Pakistan's support for talks with the Taliban would be "crucial."
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/02/24/pakistan-calls-on-taliban-to-participate-in-peace-talks-with-afghanistan/?test=latestnews#ixzz1nITurAwX
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