Mohammad Ismail Qasimyar, the High Peace Council's (HPC) advisor for international affairs, on Tuesday said that neighboring Pakistan continues to occupy a position essential to peace talks with the Taliban. His comments came after news that Islamabad successfully persuaded the Pakistani Taliban to engage in new negotiations.
Last week, the Pakistani government and Tehreek-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) reached an agreement initiating the first round of peace negotiations. The first round of the talks was set to kick off on Tuesday, but Islamabad delayed for unknown reasons.
TTP has waged an insurgent, terrorist fight against the Pakistani government in recent years in much the same way as the Afghan Taliban has in Afghanistan.
The High Peace Council (HPC) has, understandably, then, responded to the news with guarded optimism.
"We strongly support the peace candle starting to burn in the house of our neighbor," Qasimyar said on Tuesday. "Pakistan could play a critical role in peace talks and pave the ground for peace negotiations between the Taliban leadership and the Afghan government."
Peace talks between Afghan leaders and the Taliban officially have been stalled for over half a year. However, a lot of activity has been said to have taken place behind closed doors. Probably the biggest focus of President Hamid Karzai and the HPC when it comes to Taliban peace talks has been getting Pakistan to be cooperative.
Many consider Pakistan the key to a reconciliation deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan because of the role the Pakistani military and intelligence service have had in supporting the group in the past. Those ties, many in Kabul assume, should be enough to get militant leaders to the negotiating table, and only require an honest effort from Islamabad to be utilized.
However, Ahmad Navid, the Deputy Chairman of the Afghan Center for Strategic Studies (ACST), emphasized that Pakistan would not support a peace initiative in Afghanistan until such a move would align with its strategic interests.
"There is different perspective on Pakistan's strategic pole and perception between the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban, secondly, Pakistan will never persuade the Afghan Taliban to engage in peace talks with the Afghan government unless Pakistan sees its interests in Afghanistan's political system," Navid said.
Pakistan has made it a routine of assuring the Afghan government that it supports peace talks. Yet not much action has followed, and many in Afghanistan continue to distrust the Pakistani government, suspecting that Islamabad continues to support insurgent activity across the border.
Whether or not the Pakistani government does or does not actually have the pull with the Taliban to get them to the negotiating table with the Afghan government remains to be seen. What is known now, though, is that Islamabad has the ability to talk peace with the Taliban in its own country.