ISLAMABAD — Four nations — Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the United States — resumed talks Wednesday on how to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table despite the insurgents persistent refusal to halt their war against the government in Kabul.
The quadrilateral talks, which have been held alternately in Pakistan and in Afghanistan since the beginning of the year, also sought to capitalize on positive signals that emerged over the weekend in Afghanistan, where the outlawed militant group Hezb-i-Islami inched closer to a peace deal with Kabul.
There are hopes this tentative deal — which still has to be approved by the Hezb-i-Islami leader Gulbuddin Helmatyar, a U.S.-designated terrorist — could be a template for an agreement between the Afghan government and the more powerful Taliban.
But the Taliban have refused to enter into negotiations with the Afghan government, saying they first want to hold talks with the United States — something Washington has rejected.
Also, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who in the past backed peace talks with the Taliban, has dismissed future negotiations with insurgents after a deadly Kabul explosion last month. Instead Ghani has demanded Islamabad take up arms against the Haqqani network, a powerful Taliban faction that has found refuge in Pakistan.
Pakistan's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said previously that Islamabad rejects Kabul's demand and that peace talks remain the only way to end the fighting in Afghanistan. Years of fighting the Taliban has not destroyed them, Aziz said, adding that now was the time to press for talks.
Kabul sent no formal delegation to Wednesday's meeting in Islamabad, which was attended only by the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan, Omer Zakhiwal.
The apparent slight was to register Afghanistan's frustration with Pakistan over what Kabul considers inaction against Taliban operating on Pakistani soil, said Dawa Khan Menapal, deputy spokesman for Ghani.
Afghanistan and the U.S. are pushing Pakistan to do more to stop attacks in Afghanistan by militants with bases in Pakistan and to use its influence to force them into talks and off the battlefield.
The draft deal with Hezb-i-Islami took months of meetings between Hekmatyar's representatives and those of the government to hammer out, said Mohammad Khan, First Deputy for Afghanistan's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.
"I am very optimistic about this agreement and I am sure that peace with Hezb-i-Islami would have a positive effect on the battlefield in different parts of the country," Khan told reporters Wednesday.
Hekmatyar's battlefield strengths are largely restricted to a portion of northeastern Afghanistan and pale in comparison to the Taliban. His Hezb-i-Islami also harbors deep divisions with the Taliban, who drove Hekmatyar from Afghanistan in 1996 and forced him to live in exile in Iran for five years until 2001, when the U.S.-led coalition drove the Taliban from power.
