by Tahir Khan in daily Times, MARCH 18, 2021
Prime Minister’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq left Islamabad for Moscow on Wednesday to represent Pakistan in consultations on Afghan peace process in Moscow on Thursday, an official told Daily Times.
A 10-member Taliban political representatives will sit face to face with senior Afghan government officials, including Dr Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of the Afghan High Council for National Reconciliation, and prominent Afghan political figures like former president Hamid Karzai, Uzbek leader Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostam and Hizb-e-Islami chief Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, at the consultation.
Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem says head of the Taliban political office Mullah Baradar is leading the Taliban delegation.
The Taliban have previously attended conferences in Russia and also visited Moscow in January after the US announced reviewing the Doha agreement.
Hizb-e-Islami leader Ghairat Baheer told Daily Times that a three-member Hizb team is not part of the government team but it is attending the meeting on the invitation of the Russian government. He said Hekmatyar will also hold a separate meeting with the Taliban.
US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad is also attending the meeting.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says special representatives from Russia, China, the US and Pakistan will discuss the intra-Afghan settlement.
She said last week Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will deliver the opening remarks.
“The participants will discuss ways to advance the intra-Afghan talks in Doha, to reduce the level of violence and to end the armed conflict in Afghanistan, as well as to help that country become an independent, peaceful and self-sufficient state, free from terrorism and drug-related crime,” the spokesperson told reporters. Russian Foreign Ministry’s website.
A joint statement is planned to be adopted following the meeting of the expanded “troika” meeting on a peaceful settlement in Afghanistan.
Lavrov said last week that Russia, the US and China have initiated the consultations and the three countries will meet in an expanded format which will include Pakistan.
“This is in no way an official format, fixed by some decision. It is designed to encourage the parties to be more cooperative through informal discussions and a trust-based dialogue,” the Russian foreign minister said in Doha on March 11 while speaking along with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani following a trilateral meeting, Doha, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Russia started the Moscow-format consultations in 2017 with the involvement of regional countries in the Afghan peace process, but paused it after President Ashraf Ghani started an alternate initiative – the Kabul Process. It was believed that the US was behind the Kabul Process to scuttle the Moscow consultations, which had gained momentum. The Kabul Process is almost dead now.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/735698/key-consultations-on-afghan-peace-in-moscow-today/
