AFP (ISLAMABAD, 24 August 2020) – Pakistan has invited key members of the Taliban’s negotiating team to Islamabad, where senior officials will this week press them on the importance of starting peace talks, the country’s foreign minister said Monday.
The meetings come at a crucial time in Afghanistan’s conflict, with talks once again stalled amid a controversial prisoner swap.
“The delegation is in Islamabad and we will have a round of talks with them tomorrow as part of efforts aimed at (building) mutual confidence,” foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told a press conference.
The Taliban and the Afghan government had signalled they were prepared to start talks immediately after the Muslim festival of Eid, which ended earlier this month, but the process remains bogged down over a prisoner exchange.