Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, US seek roadmap to peace

A key gathering opened on Monday in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad in which four major countries — Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States — hope to lay the roadmap to peace for the war-shattered Afghan nation. The meeting comes as battlefield losses in Afghanistan are mounting and entire swaths of the country that cost hundreds of U.S.-led coalition and Afghan military lives to secure slip back into Taliban hands. Taliban representatives are not invited to the talks, vowing to talk only to the U.S. and not to the Afghan government. As the gathering got under way, host Pakistan — seen as key to bringing the warring Taliban factions to the table — cautioned of the difficulties ahead.

to define the overall direction of the reconciliation process, along with the goals and targets it would like to set with a view to creating a conducive environment for holding direct talks between Afghan government and Taliban groups.

Sartaj Aziz, adviser to the Pakistani prime minister

Sartaj Aziz, adviser to the Pakistani prime minister on foreign affairs, warned against prematurely deciding which Taliban factions are ready to talk, urging instead “confidence building” measures to get even the recalcitrant Taliban to the negotiating table. But analysts and participants alike say that while there are four countries talking, much of the hope for progress toward peace rests with Pakistan — which is accused of harboring some of the fiercest factions of the Taliban, including the Haqqani group, a U.S.-declared terrorist organization.

Politics Afghan peace