Pakistani diplomats held “good” talks with representatives of Afghanistan’s Taliban-led interim government in Qatar this week to discuss bilateral and regional issues in a move seen as an effort to ease tensions and repair frayed ties between the two neighbours.
The Afghan Taliban delegation, in the Qatari capital Doha this week for a UN-sponsored conference on Afghanistan, was hosted at a dinner by the Pakistani delegation in Qatar on the sidelines of the conference, Dawn newspaper reported on Tuesday.
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The paper said Taliban government spokesman Zabihillah Mujahid, who led the Doha delegation, said the meetings with Pakistani diplomats had been “good” and expressed hope for building “positive relations” with Pakistan.
“I had good meetings with Pakistan’s Special Representative Asif Durrani and its ambassador and consul in Qatar,” Mujahid wrote on X on Tuesday. “I appreciate their hospitality and look forward to good and positive relations between our two countries.”
According to the newspaper, Durrani said during the meeting the two sides discussed Doha III, bilateral and regional issues.
Pakistan’s envoy to Qatar, Muhammad Aejaz, hosted the meeting at his residence and said: [sides] Our two countries remain neighbors and brothers and have much in common, including a strong desire for peace and security in the region.
Durrani raised the issue of extremism in his opening speech at a UN-sponsored conference on Afghanistan on June 30, calling on the Afghan interim government to take action against Tehreek-e-Taliban and other terrorist groups.
Pakistan has repeatedly called on the Afghan interim government to prevent the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other terrorist organisations from using Afghanistan’s territory against it, but the Kabul government has rejected the call.
Pakistani and Taliban officials also interacted with their Uzbek and Qatari counterparts at the Quad meeting in Doha.
“On the sidelines of Doha-III, a quadrilateral meeting of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Qatar considered the Trans-Afghanistan Railway project, which would connect Uzbekistan and Pakistan through Afghanistan. This project would effectively connect South Asia and Central Asia,” Durrani wrote on X.
Mujahid, who attended the four-party meeting, said “all parties called for early commencement and completion of the Trans-Afghanistan Railway project.”
During the meeting, Durrani called for greater international engagement with the Afghan interim government and the lifting of the freeze on Afghan assets.
Pakistan also highlighted the issue of Afghan refugees and called for creating a favourable environment in Afghanistan for their return.
Relations between the two countries have been tense recently, mainly due to the TTP, but there have also been frequent border skirmishes.
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif on Saturday criticised the Afghan Taliban-led government in Kabul for not taking action against militants along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border despite repeated requests from Islamabad.
“Pakistan was expecting cooperation from the Afghan government, but the Afghan government was not ready to take action against the militants,” Asif said in an interview with BBC Urdu, adding that Pakistan had even offered 10 billion rupees in aid to move the militants towards the western border.
In an interview with Voice of America last week, Asif said Pakistan could strike terrorist hideouts across the border in Afghanistan under Operation Azm-e-Istekam and also ruled out any possibility of negotiations with the TTP.
Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman reacted angrily to Asif’s comments about attacking TTP hideouts inside Afghanistan.
In March, Pakistan Air Force jets carried out airstrikes against terrorists in the border areas of neighboring Khost and Paktika.
Speaking shortly after the attack, Asif said Pakistan wanted to convey to the Afghan interim government in Kabul that the situation could not continue like this.
Terror incidents have risen in Pakistan since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021, dashing Islamabad’s hopes that a friendly government in Afghanistan would help counter extremism.
Pakistan recorded 1,524 violence-related deaths and 1,463 injuries in 789 terror attacks and counterterrorism operations in 2023, the highest in six years, according to an annual security report released by think tank Centre for Research and Security Studies.
