KABUL – China has invited a Taliban delegation to attend an “intra-Afghan” conference in Beijing, a militant spokesman said Wednesday, after a prospective deal between the United States and the insurgents collapsed last month.
Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban political spokesman, said on Twitter that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the group’s co-founder, had met with Chinese diplomats in Doha, where the militants have a political office.
“Both sides discussed the upcoming intra-Afghan conference in Beijing and issues related to the solution of Afghan problem,” Shaheen wrote.
He later told AFP the conference would take place October 29-30.
It would be separate from talks between the US and the Taliban, which spent the past year negotiating a deal that would have seen the Pentagon pull thousands of troops from Afghanistan in return for various security guarantees.
President Donald Trump scrapped those talks last month amid continued Taliban violence in Afghanistan, including a bombing that killed an American soldier.
The deal would have paved the way for separate talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government to search for an end to the conflict.
The Taliban have steadfastly refused to talk to the Afghan government, and Shaheen said any attendance by Afghan officials in Beijing would be on the understanding they were representing only themselves.
“All participants will attend in their personal capacity and will present their personal point of view for the solution of the Afghan problem,” Shaheen wrote on Twitter.
Similar talks have been held previously in Doha and in Moscow.
Beijing has not confirmed the new discussions, but a foreign ministry spokeswoman said at a regular briefing Wednesday it is “willing to facilitate and help” the Afghan peace process “on the basis of respecting the wishes of all parties”.
In a statement, the Afghan peace ministry said “talks are ongoing” with the Chinese government for a possible summit, which it welcomed “in principle” but it did not commit to sending anyone.
“If acceptable standards are observed, a decision will be made in regard with participating in this conference,” the statement read.
Shaheen told AFP that only lower-level government officials should be allowed on the guest list.
Former president Hamid Karzai’s spokesman, Mohammad Yusuf Saha, told AFP that Karzai was “prepared to attend” but said no attendee list had been finalised.
The US and Europe meanwhile published a joint communique calling on Ghani and other Afghan leaders to focus on preparing Afghanistan for formal “intra-Afghan negotiations with the Taliban, including the naming of an inclusive, national negotiating team”.
The statement also called on “all parties to take immediate and necessary steps to reduce violence and civilian casualties”.
Since Trump scuttled the prospective deal with the Taliban on September 7, Zalmay Khalilzad, the US special envoy who was leading negotiations, has spoken informally with senior insurgent officials in Pakistan, raising the possibility Washington is seeking to resume its talks with the group.
China, which shares a 76-kilometre (47-mile) border with the extreme northeastern tip of Afghanistan, has previously hosted Taliban officials, most recently last month. (AFP)
Pakistan to participate in Afghan peace talks in Moscow
Pakistan on Wednesday said it will take part in the four-party dialogue on the Afgan peace process to be held in Moscow next month, which will try to revive the stalled negotiations.
Russia, US, China and Pakistan are part of the group.
Addressing a weekly press briefing here, Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said, “Pakistan will attend the talks and it will be represented by the additional secretary for Afghanistan and the West Asia.”
Islamabad has also participated in the previous round of the talks held in Beijing in July. That was the third meeting of the trilateral forum comprising China, Russia and US and the first in which Pakistan was involved.
“Pakistan has been part of all efforts made for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan and it would continue to play its role towards it,” Faisal said.
“The next round of talks is being held in Moscow at an opportune moment as it would provide an important opportunity to review the currently stalled peace process,” he said.
Faisal said Pakistan will continue its “wholehearted support as its part of shared responsibility for making the international peace efforts successful in Afghanistan”.
Earlier this month, a high-level Afghan Taliban delegation visited Pakistan. The visit had coincided with US reconciliation envoy Zalmay Khalilzad’s trip to Islamabad.
In September, US President Donald Trump cancelled a secret meeting with the Taliban and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at Camp David near Washington after the Taliban claimed responsibility of an attack in Kabul in which an American soldier were among the dead.
The US has been conducting peace talks with the Taliban and the two sides were hopeful of a deal that included America cutting down on troops in Afghanistan and guarantees by Taliban of not allowing the Afghan soil to be ever used again for terror activities.
The US-Taliban talks had collapsed after nine rounds of talks between the US and Taliban representatives, held in Doha, the capital of the Gulf state of Qatar. (With PTI Inputs )
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