Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif says Islamabad is ready to hold talks with any group in order to achieve peace in Afghanistan.
Sharif on Saturday said the Islamabad government was not allied with any particular Afghan group and was willing to work for peace in the neighboring war-torn country.
“Pakistan supports a united Afghanistan,” the premier told a gathering of senior officials in Islamabad.
The remarks come a day before a senior advisor to Sharif plans to visit Kabul on Sunday. Veteran Pakistani politician Sartaj Aziz will deliver an invitation to Afghan President Hamid Karzai from Premier Sharif to visit Pakistan.
However, some sources say Aziz will also push the Afghan government to restart stalled talks with the Taliban militant group.
The revelations come days after a senior Pakistani official said the Islamabad government had facilitated the ongoing controversial peace talks between the Taliban militants and the United States in Qatar.
According to the unnamed official, Pakistani negotiators have been persuading the Taliban leadership in recent weeks to embark on peace talks with the Americans and the Afghan government.
Å“The process is continuing. In fact it is in everyoneâ„¢s interest that the process remains alive,” the Pakistani Dawn newspaper quoted the official as saying in late June.
President Barack Obama’s administration has supported peace talks with the Taliban after the US-led forces lost ground against the militants in recent months across Afghanistan.
Pakistani officials have welcomed the dialogue between Taliban and the United States in Doha, but the Afghan government has expressed serious concerns about the ongoing US-led peace process with Taliban in Qatar.
Senior Afghan officials say the move contradicts the US security guarantees, noting that the Taliban militants will be able to use their Doha office to raise funds for their campaign in Afghanistan.
JR/SS
Republished with permission from: Press TV