Afghanistan-Pakistan peace talks fail again

Afghanistan’s Taliban government said Saturday the latest round of peace talks with Pakistan in Turkey had failed, blaming Islamabad’s “irresponsible and uncooperative” approach.

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“During the discussions, the Pakistani side attempted to shift all responsibility for its security to the Afghan government, while showing no willingness to take responsibility for either Afghanistan’s security or its own,” Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote on social media.

“The irresponsible and uncooperative attitude of the Pakistani delegation has not yielded any results,” he said.

Islamabad did not immediately comment.

Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar hinted a day earlier that the negotiations were falling through, saying that the onus lay on Afghanistan to fulfil pledges to clamp down on terrorism, “which so far they have failed”.

“Pakistan shall continue to exercise all options necessary to safeguard the security of its people and its sovereignty,” he wrote.

The two countries met in Istanbul on Thursday to try to finalize a truce agreed on October 19 in Qatar, in the wake of the deadliest clashes between the South Asian neighbors since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021.