DIPLOMATS MEET IN PAKISTAN IN EFFORT TO RESTART PEACE TALKS WITH TALIBAN

[In the opening remarks at the meeting, Sartaj Aziz, the senior foreign policy aide to Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, said that Pakistan was committed to furthering the Afghan reconciliation process. But he resisted calls by some officials for the Pakistan military to threaten to crack down on Taliban factions that refused to join the talks, saying that any preconditions would be counterproductive.]

By Salman Masood

Afghan security forces checked travelers in northeastern Afghanistan,

near the Pakistan border, on Sunday. Peace talks with the Taliban have

become more urgent as the insurgents continue to seize Afghan

territory.CreditGhulamullah Habibi/European Pressphoto Agency

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Senior diplomats from Pakistan, Afghanistan,China and the United States met in Islamabad on Monday to try to lay the groundwork for a new round of peace talks with the Taliban.

The push for new talks has taken on urgency in recent months, as aggressive Taliban offensives have been seizing large sections of Afghan territory. The presence of both American and Chinese officials at the meeting was seen as a signal of the importance of the negotiations.

While some officials held out hope that Taliban representatives and Afghan officials could meet as early as next month, the meeting on Monday seemed as much about trying to smooth over months of tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan as about any real prospect of a change of heart by the Taliban. After the meeting, the officials released a statement saying that another planning session would take place in Kabul, the Afghan capital, next Monday.

The first and only official Afghan talks with the Taliban were in July, after intensive efforts by the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, to win Pakistan’s help in bringing the insurgents to the table. That effort fell apart after news that the Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, had died more than two years before. Mr. Ghani was left with nothing to show, after losing considerable political support back home for courting the Pakistani military, which some Afghan officials accuse of sheltering the Taliban for use as a proxy force.

Since then, relations between the neighboring countries have soured. Afghan officials have accused Pakistan of not living up to its promises to try to rein in the Taliban through a year of territorial gains. And Pakistani officials have been rankled by the Ghani government’s closer ties with India, Pakistan’s archenemy, which has expanded its aid to Afghanistan to include weaponry.

On Monday, the officials gathered to discuss the importance of resuming direct talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government. But no representatives for the insurgents were present, and since the July talks, many senior Taliban commanders have adamantly opposed even the prospect of new talks while the insurgency is doing so well on the battlefield.

In the opening remarks at the meeting, Sartaj Aziz, the senior foreign policy aide to Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, said that Pakistan was committed to furthering the Afghan reconciliation process. But he resisted calls by some officials for the Pakistan military to threaten to crack down on Taliban factions that refused to join the talks, saying that any preconditions would be counterproductive.

“The threat of use of military action against irreconcilables cannot precede the offer of talks to all the groups,” Mr. Aziz said.

Mr. Aziz was joined by Pakistan’s foreign secretary, Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, in representing Pakistan at the meeting, and Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Karzai came from Afghanistan. The new United States special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard G. Olson, took part, as did the Pentagon’s top envoy to Pakistan, Lt. Gen. Anthony J. Rock. China was represented by Deng Xijun, the special envoy for Afghan affairs.

One senior Pakistani intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the political considerations surrounding the peace process, acknowledged the hard feelings between Pakistan and Afghanistan before the meeting, saying, “As long as Kabul and India try to undermine Pakistan, the talks will not succeed.”

The senior Pakistani official held out hope that some Taliban figures could be persuaded to join the talks next month, but admitted that even then it would be very unlikely to have any sweeping effect.

“At best, we can convince three to four Taliban groups,” the official said. “But it is yet to be decided which group will act as the head during the talks and whether it can influence all of the warring Taliban.”

“There are too many stakeholders involved,” the official added. “And what can Kabul really offer to the Taliban?”

@ The New York Times