ISLAMABAD: The United States and Afghanistan haven’t taken Pakistan into confidence about the visit of US President Donald Trump to Afghan capital Kabul on Thursday last even after four days.The diplomatic sources termed the visit as a “break-through” activity since Afghan Taliban have given their conditional consent to resume stalled dialogue with the United States immediate after the visit. The talks were severed by the President unilaterally in late second quarter of this year when Taliban leaders were about to reach Camp David secretly for face-to-face talks with the President. The Presidential action subverted the efforts for ceasefire in war-torn Afghanistan.Now President Trump spoke of ceasefire and talks with Taliban in the presence of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at Bagram Airbase in suburb of Kabul. The office of Ashraf Ghani is at the tenterhook since he will have to contest for another time run of election immediate after announcement of the polls result held earlier this year.Well-placed sources told The News here on Saturday that Afghan Talban have disputed the claim made by the US sources regarding resumption of talks and agreement for ceasefire in Afghanistan. The Foreign Office wasn’t aware of any schedule of the visit of the US President to Afghanistan, supposed to be maiden and has no inkling of nature of engagements of the President.President Donald Trump paid a surprise Thanksgiving visit to Afghanistan on Thursday where he announced the US and the Taliban have been engaged in ongoing peace talks and said he believes the Taliban want a ceasefire. He thanked the troops, delivered a speech and sat down with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani before leaving just after midnight. He stayed at the Afghan soil less than four hours.About 12,000 US troops remain in Afghanistan. During his visit, Trump announced that the US and Taliban have been engaged in peace talks and insisted the Taliban want to make a deal in recent months. “We’re meeting with them,” he said. “And we’re saying it has to be a ceasefire. And they don’t want to do a ceasefire, but now they do want to do a ceasefire, I believe ... and we’ll see what happens.”The trip came after Trump abruptly broke-off peace talks with the Taliban in September, canceling a secret meeting with Taliban and Afghan leaders at the Camp David presidential retreat after a particularly deadly spate of violence, capped by a bombing in Kabul that killed 12 people, including an American soldier. It was not immediately clear how long or substantive the US re-engagement with the Taliban has been.Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the Taliban’s stance is unchanged. He said the United States broke off talks and when it wants to resume the Taliban are ready. Trump ran his 2016 campaign promising to end the nation’s “endless wars” and has been pushing to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and in the Middle East despite protests from top US officials, Trump’s Republican allies in Washington and many US allies abroad. For months now, he has described American forces as “policemen” and argued that other countries’ wars should be theirs to wage.Tens of thousands of Afghan civilians and more than 2,400 American service members have been killed since the war began 18 years ago. The US and the Taliban in September had been close to an agreement that might have enabled a US troop withdrawal. Trump said the US will stay in the country “until we have a deal or we have total victory.” Ashraf Ghani praised Trump for the October mission that killed Islamic State group leader Abu Bakar Al-Baghdadi. He also indicated, as Trump himself has, that the al-Baghdadi mission was even more significant than the 2011 mission targeting al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden. The bin Laden mission was ordered by then-President Barack Obama. “President Trump, people talked a lot about bin Laden, but what you did to eliminate al-Baghdadi, who was an organiser and not a talker, is a much greater accomplishment,” said Ghani, in remarks to US troops before Trump’s departure.The trip came a week after the Taliban freed a US national and an Australian who had been held hostage since 2016 in exchange for three top Taliban figures, a move that has been widely seen as a possible entree to rekindling peace talks. The sources said that government is waiting for dispatch from Washington and Kabul both for ascertaining the outcome of the visit of US President.In the meanwhile, Safdar Hayat has been appointed as Additional Foreign Secretary for Afghanistan, Turkey and Iran vice Aejaz Ahmad who has become Pakistan’s ambassador for Hungary. He is leaving for Budapest later this month to assume the office. Pakistan’s ambassador for Afghanistan Zahid Nasarullah is also being replaced with another diplomat as Zahid will be assigned at the headquarters, the sources said. Another astute diplomat Dr. Aman Rashid has taken over as Additional Foreign Secretary for Europe vice Zahir Aslam Janjua who has been appointed Pakistan’s ambassador for European Union and Belgium.
12-01-2019, 01:56 PM
Pakistan not taken into confidence on Trump?s Afghan visit
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