Afghan President to visit Pakistan for seeking help to hold talks with Taliban

[ajpirzada]

By Augustine Anthony

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Afghanistan does not want a proxy war between Pakistan and India or anybody else fought on its soil, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday during a visit to Pakistan.

Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan are vying for influence in Afghanistan, complicating U.S.-led efforts to end an intensifying Taliban insurgency and bring stability to Afghanistan more than eight years after the Taliban were ousted.

Karzai said he did not want any country using Afghanistan against another. His visit comes after Pakistan has intensified efforts to fight militancy, winning U.S. praise.

"The bottom line is, Afghanistan does not want any proxy wars on its territory," Karzai told a news conference with Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani.

"It does not want a proxy war between India and Pakistan in Afghanistan, it does not want a proxy war between Iran and the United States in Afghanistan," he said.

India has developed close relations with Karzai's government while ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been fraught with tension over recent years, mostly over Afghan suspicion Pakistan is quietly helping the Taliban.

Analysts say Pakistan sees the Afghan Taliban as a tool to promote its interests in Afghanistan, where it wants to see a friendly government in power and to limit India's influence.

While India accuses Pakistan of backing militants who attack its interests in Afghanistan, Pakistan accuses India of using its diplomatic missions in Afghanistan to help separatist militants in its southwestern province of Baluchistan.

"TWINS"

Karzai said India was a very close friend and had given much support but Pakistan was like a brother.

"India is a close friend of Afghanistan but Pakistan is a brother of Afghanistan. Pakistan is a twin brother ... we're conjoined twins, there's no separation," he said.

Both Afghanistan and Pakistan were facing regular, deadly attacks, Karzai said hours before a roadside bomb killed four people in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.

"We in Afghanistan are fully aware and recognize that without Pakistan, and without its cooperation in Afghanistan, Afghanistan cannot be stable or peaceful," Karzai said.

"It is also, I believe and I hope, recognized in Pakistan that without a stable and peaceful Afghanistan, there cannot be stability or peace in Pakistan," he said.

The recent arrest of several Afghan Taliban leaders in Pakistan, including top military strategist Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, has led to speculation Pakistan is changing its position on the militants in anticipation of some sort of peace process and the departure of Western forces.

Pakistan has said very little about the arrests, only officially confirming the arrest of Baradar. Gilani said he and Karzai discussed an Afghan request for Baradar's extradition.

"We have our own judiciary ... we are consulting the legal experts too, and we'll sit with them and discuss it and get back to the honorable president," Gilani told the news conference.

A Pakistan court late last month barred the government from sending captured Afghan Taliban leaders abroad.

The Pakistani interior minister had earlier said Baradar was being investigated for crimes in Pakistan and would be tried there in the first instance.

Ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been uneasy since Pakistan's independence in 1947 but have warmed since a civilian government came to power in Islamabad in 2008.

At times, Karzai and former Pakistani military leader Pervez Musharraf were hardly on speaking terms.

(Additional reporting by Ibrahim Shinwari; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Paul Tait)

We don't want proxy wars in Afghanistan, Karzai says | Reuters

 

[ajpirzada]

here is the video link: Karzai meets Pakistani PM | Video | Reuters.com

 

[Omar1984]

Pakistan will be privy to talks with Taliban: Karzai ​

ISLAMABAD: Afghan President Hamid Karzai assured Pakistan on Thursday of a role in his government’s plan for ‘reconciliation and reintegration’ of the Taliban to end fighting in Afghanistan.

The president, who was on the second day of a two-day trip to Pakistan — the first after his re-election — in meetings with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and National Assembly’s standing committee on foreign affairs promised to keep Pakistan on board about any political engagement with the Taliban.

In his talks with his interlocutors, Mr Karzai acknowledged that Pakistan had a critical role in dialogue with the Taliban, who largely came from Pakhtun tribes straddling the borders of the two countries.

“Without a collaborative effort, it would be difficult to achieve peace and stability in the two countries,” he was quoted by a source as having told Mr Gilani.

Mr Karzai’s categorical assurance was viewed as very significant by Pakistan’s foreign policy strategists, who were earlier wary of an effort by the Afghan government to sidetrack it in political settlement with the militants.

The agreement on keeping Pakistan engaged while reaching out to the Taliban in Afghanistan, because of its importance, overshadowed the signing of a bilateral agreement on boosting bilateral economic ties and people-to-people contacts.

The Afghan president sent out positive messages aimed at assuaging Pakistan’s strategic concerns. The concerns are believed to have been behind the trust deficit that kept the two countries feuding for years and could yet undermine the new peace process for reconciling with the Taliban.

Pakistan reciprocated the conciliatory gestures.

The two countries had on Wednesday agreed to revive the bilateral jirga peace process involving eminent tribal leaders from both the countries for evolving a consensus on how Pakistan and Afghanistan could cooperate in talks with the Taliban.

Balancing act

At his joint press conference with Prime Minister Gilani, the Afghan president attempted to strike a balance in his country’s relations with India and Pakistan.

While he acknowledged India’s contribution to development of Afghanistan and termed it a ‘friend’, he called Pakistan a ‘conjoined twin’.

“India is a close friend of Afghanistan but Pakistan is a brother of Afghanistan. Pakistan is a twin brother. We are conjoined twins, there’s no separation,” he said.

Suspicions in Islamabad over India’s growing influence in Afghanistan and the alleged use of Afghan territory to destabilise Pakistan has been one of the major causes of differences between the two neighbours (Afghanistan and Pakistan).

The intensifying competition between Pakistan and India for influence in Afghanistan has complicated US efforts to quell militancy.

In a clear message for all competing regional and global powers, Mr Karzai said: “Afghanistan does not want any proxy wars on its territory. It does not want a proxy war between India and Pakistan on Afghanistan. It does not want a proxy war between Iran and the United States on Afghanistan.”

Mr Karzai, sources said, in his meetings with the civil and military leadership assured that Pakistan’s concerns vis-à-vis India would be addressed.

Discussions on extradition of senior Taliban commander Mullah Baradar remained inconclusive. Prime Minister Gilani told the press conference the extradition had been held up because of a court ruling. “We have our own judiciary and they are quite active. We are consulting legal experts before responding to Afghan request.”

Joint declaration

Foreign ministers of the two countries signed a document for boosting trade and economic ties; collaboration in energy projects; strengthening communication links; and promoting people-to-people contacts.

The joint declaration, ‘Next Steps in Afghanistan-Pakistan Comprehensive Cooperation’, sketches out plans for enhancing cooperation in education and agriculture sectors.

The declaration said the two countries would take steps to increase bilateral trade to $5 billion by 2015.

AP adds:

Critics have accused Islamabad of protecting Taliban leaders to maintain good relations with the group in anticipation of Western forces eventually withdrawing from the country – an allegation denied by Pakistan.

Some analysts have speculated the country was trying to guarantee itself a seat at the negotiating table.

“The Afghans see this as an undermining of their (peace) initiative,” said Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani expert on the Taliban.

Despite long-standing tension between the two countries, Kabul knows that Islamabad remains a powerful regional player and its long-time links to the Taliban could make it an indispensable part of talks.

“The Afghans are not in a position to take on Pakistan,” said Mr Rashid. Mr Karzai plans to hold a peace conference in Afghanistan next month and hopes to rope in the Taliban. He said on Thursday he was dedicated to pursuing the process despite lukewarm enthusiasm from the US, which remains suspicious of talks with top Taliban leaders and prefers reaching out to disaffected Taliban fighters.

“Our allies are not talking the same language from time to time,” Mr Karzai acknowledged.

He said his government has had contacts within the Taliban leadership “as high as you wish to go”. He would not say if that included Taliban leader Mullah Omar, but reiterated his willingness to talk to him.

 

[pkd]

'Karzai's Pakistan trip linked to trilateral talks'

Days after the Iranian president's visit to Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki explains whether the trip has had an influence on the Afghan president's trip made immediately afterwards to Pakistan.

Speaking to Press TV on Friday, the Iranian foreign minister said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Kabul had been scheduled only days after the presidential elections in Afghanistan.

Mottaki said the visit was aimed at "congratulating Mr.[Hamid] Karzai," "reviewing relations between Tehran and Kabul, reviewing the latest situation in Afghanistan," and "holding talks on security measures."

The Iranian minister went on to explain about the trip made by President Karzai to Pakistan immediately after the departure of the Iranian delegation, saying "it is the nature of relations between countries."

Mottaki said while the visit was "not directly linked" to President Ahmadinejad's trip, it was related to a decision made during talks with the Iranian delegation about holding a trilateral summit in Islamabad.

"I think based on the negotiation between Ahmadinejad and Karzai, he will also be in contact with President Zardari," the Iranian foreign minister said.
'Karzai's Pakistan trip linked to trilateral talks'

P.S: Does that means Iran , Pakistan and Afghanistan on the same page?

 

[PakiPashtun]

^I hope peace occurs from these talks.