Afghanistan-Pakistan Start Peace Negotiations Again After Islamabad Threatens To Eliminate Taliban

JAKARTA - Afghanistan and Pakistan will restart peace negotiations in Istanbul, according to three sources familiar with the matter on Thursday.

This news surfaced the day after Islamabad declared the negotiations ended in failure.

The source said the two countries had agreed to restart negotiations at the request of the host country, Turkey.

Negotiations team from the two countries are currently in Istanbul, the two sources said, to ensure they do not continue the border clashes that have occurred for decades.

As reported by Reuters on Thursday, October 30, a source, a Pakistani security official, said Islamabad would emphasize its main demands in the negotiations: for Afghanistan to take action against militants using its territory as a safe haven and planning an attack on Pakistan's territory.

Islamabad accused the Taliban of protecting the Pakistani Taliban, a separate militant group hostile to Pakistan, allowing them to launch attacks from Afghanistan against Pakistani forces.

Kabul denies it, saying it has no control over the group.

The sources declined to be named because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the matter.

The Afghan Taliban and the military and Pakistan's foreign offices did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Dozens of people were killed this month along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan in the worst violence since the Taliban took power in Kabul in 2021.

Clashes in October began after Pakistan's airstrikes this month in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, among other locations, targeting Pakistani Taliban leaders.

The Taliban responded with attacks on Pakistani military posts along the 2,600 km (1,600 miles) border, which is still closed.

The two countries agreed to a ceasefire brokered in Doha on October 19, but were unable to find a common ground in the second round of negotiations mediated by Turkey and Qatar in Istanbul.

Clashes between the Pakistani military and the Pakistani Taliban continued during the ceasefire period, with heavy casualties reported on both sides on Sundays and Wednesdays.