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2021-07-20 India-Pakistan
US peace envoy visits Islamabad as Pakistan-Afghan ties sour
[AlAhram] Pakistain is seen as key to peace in Afghanistan. The Taliban
...Arabic for students...
leadership is headquartered in Pakistain and Islamabad has used its leverage, which it says is now waning, to press the Taliban to talk peace

Washington's point man in talks aimed at ending decades of war in Afghanistan made a brief visit Monday to Pakistain as relations between Islamabad and Kabul reached a new low.

Continued from Page 2



Zalmay Khalilzad's visit came just hours after Afghanistan withdrew its ambassador from Pakistain late Sunday after the diplomat's daughter was brutally attacked last week. The U.S. envoy met with Pakistain's powerful army Chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa but nothing was immediately known of their discussions.

Pakistain and Afghanistan have a long and troubled history, their relationship fraught with mistrust and suspicion. Each accuses the other of fomenting violence on its territory while also harboring its enemies. Pakistain also hosts nearly 2 million Afghans, refugees from four decades of war in their homeland, and many in Afghanistan have grown up as refugees in Pakistain before returning.

Khalilzad arrived in Islamabad from Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
where the Taliban and Afghan government representatives have held two days of talks that ended late Sunday, with a promise by the warring sides to meet again.

It was the highest level of talks so far, aimed at jumpstarting a grinding of the peace processor that has stagnated for months while fighting inside Afghanistan soared as the U.S. and NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
complete their troop withdrawal.

Khalilzad had expressed hope that the sides would agree even to a temporary truce _ to mark the most important Islamic holiday, Eid al-Adha
...a major Moslem holiday, marked by animal sacrifice and ritual rioting...
or ``Feast of Sacrifice,'' which begins on Tuesday in most Moslem countries. Instead, the talks ended with a communique that offered little prospects of an end to fighting anytime soon.

It promised more high-level talks and offered promises of greater protection for Afghan civilians caught in the crossfire and for infrastructure.

Last week, Khalilzad attended an international conference in Uzbekistan that tried to find a resolution for the rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan but the gathering did not produce a roadmap to end the fighting.

Still, Kabul is deeply critical of Islamabad's assistance to the Taliban, including hospital treatment for Taliban fighters maimed in battles in Afghanistan. In the most recent fighting in the town of Spin Boldak in southeastern Afghanistan, Taliban fighters were seen receiving treatment at a Pak hospital across the border in Chaman.

Senior Pak security officials had previously said that Khalilzad pressed Pakistain to push Taliban leaders to embrace a cease-fire or at least substantially reduce the violence in Afghanistan to allow a grinding of the peace processor to take root. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Pakistain's military leadership has reportedly warned the Taliban _ who have recently taken more and more territory amid battlefield wins against beleaguered Afghan forces _ not to make a push on Kabul. Islamabad has also reportedly told the Taliban it will not recognize a government that comes to power by force.

Pakistain has also been deeply critical of Kabul saying it has allowed another murderous Moslem group, the Pak Taliban _ Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain _ to find safety in Afghanistan from where they have launched a growing number of attacks targeting the Pakistain military.

While the two krazed killer groups are separate, Afghan Taliban leaders have close ties with the Pak Taliban. Some analysts say Pakistain worries that if it pushed the Afghan Taliban too hard, they will in turn push the Pak Taliban to step-up their attacks.

In Kabul, the Afghan foreign ministry issued a statement Sunday saying it was recalling its senior diplomats from Islamabad over the assault on the ambassador's daughter. Silsila Alikhil, 26, was kidnapped in the middle of the afternoon in the Pak capital, held for several hours and brutally assaulted.

The ministry said the diplomats would not return to Islamabad ``until all security threats are met including the arrest and trial of the perpetrators of the abduction.''
Posted by trailing wife 2021-07-20 00:00|| || Front Page|| [8 views ]  Top
 File under: Govt of Pakistan 

#1 Pak military is not capable of completely shutting down the Taliban in Pakistan. The best they can do is sequester most of the country from the fighting.
Posted by Lord Garth 2021-07-20 15:21||   2021-07-20 15:21|| Front Page Top

18:40 3dc
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18:23 DooDahMan
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17:57 Huputle+Cherelet4131
17:53 SteveS
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17:49 lord garth
17:26 trailing wife
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