Taliban fighters and other groups have long used Pakistan?s tribal areas to launch attacks on NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan, a point of contention between the two nations. Pakistan is more willing than before to play a role in Afghanistan?s tentative peace process with the Taliban, President Hamid Karzai?s top officials said. ?The message is that people who want to take part in the peace process should have the way cleared for them,? said Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, secretary of a peace council set up by Afghanistan?s president. ?To those who think war is the only means to reach their goals, there should not be a hideout for them to continue their war.?
?The message was that those (rebels) who want to join the peace process and reconcile should be facilitated and the means should be prepared for them in order to enable them to join the negotiations,? he added.
But those who do not want to join the reconciliation process ?must be dropped... No room should be left (for them to) arrange and organise and encourage people to fight and continue the war.?
In response, Pakistan was ?much more welcoming than at any other time?, said Karzai?s spokesman Waheed Omer.
?The acceptance was better and (Pakistan) made some promises about practical actions and we are hopeful that (the promises) are practised in action,? he added, although he did not disclose what those promises were. Stanekzai and other Afghan officials spoke to journalists Sunday after Afghan President Hamid Karzai returned from a visit to Pakistan?s capital. A four-page statement signed by Pakistani and Afghan officials dated Saturday gave no details about the proposed strikes.
Presidential spokesman Waheed Omar said that Pakistan?s government has ?influence? over some Taliban that could be used to draw them into the so-far faltering peace negotiations. So far, there have been no substantive talks with any insurgent groups.
The push for peace talks come as fighting in Afghanistan intensifies, with the Taliban and other groups increasingly using roadside bombs and suicide attacks against civilians. May was the deadliest month for civilians since 2007, when the United Nations began keeping detailed records on casualties, the world body said Saturday.
A plan to gradually transition control of seven parts of the country to Afghan control will begin next month, Karzai?s office said in a statement. The country?s National Security Council met Sunday and received word that transition process ?will be finalised in the coming three weeks,? a statement said.
Ashraf Ghani, the man in charge of drafting the transition plan, also told the council that after that period ?the process will be officially started?. The first phase of transition will start in the provincial capitals of Lashkar Gah in southern Afghanistan, Herat in the west, Mazer-e-Sharif in the north and Mehterlam in the east. In addition, Afghan police and soldiers will take charge in all of Bamiyan and Panjshir provinces, which have seen little to no fighting, and all of Kabul province except for the restive Surobi district.
Afghan security forces already have assumed the responsibility for security in the greater Kabul area, which is home to about 5 million people - about one-fifth to one-quarter of the nation?s population.
Also Sunday, a bomb exploded next to a boy?s school in the eastern province of Paktya, killing two teenagers and wounding 10 others. It was unclear if the bomb was freshly planted or if it was unexploded ordnance dating back to one of Afghanistan?s past conflicts, said district police chief Gulab Shah.
In a separate incident in eastern Paktika province, unknown gunmen shot and killed regional irrigation director Gul Mohammad last Friday, said Mokhlis Afghan, the governor?s spokesman.
taylor momsen flag day fran drescher pentagon papers gop debate sex and the city che
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.