Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States on Wednesday discussed how to provide Taliban leaders safe passage to join peace negotiations, a key issue to allow the talks to succeed, officials said.
The Safe Passage Working Group’s meeting was held at the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad, said a brief statement from the Foreign Office spokesman. The trilateral core group of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US had agreed to establish the Working Group during its meeting in Islamabad on April 7.
The inaugural meeting of the newly-established working group was attended by senior officials from Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States. The three countries agreed to form the working group back in April as part of efforts to kick start the Afghan reconciliation process, which has been plagued by mistrust between the three governments and the Taliban.
The U.S. and Afghan governments have urged Islamabad to push the Taliban to participate in a peace process that has had trouble getting off the ground. All three countries believe a peace deal is necessary to prevent Afghanistan from descending into civil war after most foreign forces withdraw by the end of 2014. But the process has been plagued by mistrust between the three governments and the Taliban.
Pakistani foreign affairs ministry following a statement said, “Delegations from Kabul, Washington and Islamabad participated in today’s meeting and agreed to continue further discussions aimed at promoting peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan.”
In the past, Islamabad acknowledged that it did allow some Taliban negotiators to travel to the Gulf for talks. However, the three countries are now pushing for an institutionalised mechanism under which Taliban interlocutors will be guaranteed a safe passage.
Islamabad, Washington and Kabul are also currently working with the United Nations (UN) to remove certain Taliban commanders from the world body’s terror list.


