A high-level Taliban delegation on Thursday met Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi as part of a push to revive the Afghan peace process stalled after U.S. President Donald Trump declared the talks with the rebel group “dead”.
The Taliban delegation led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday night.
The issue of Afghan peace talks and regional situation were discussed during their meeting with Mr. Qureshi, a Foreign Office official said.
Mr. Qureshi told the delegation that war was not a solution of the ongoing unrest in Afghanistan.
The delegation is also expected to meet American officials in Islamabad.
Taliban’s Pakistan visit is the fourth leg of a tour that included Russia, China and Iran.
The Foreign Office announced on Wednesday that the Afghan delegation was visiting on the invitation of Pakistan to review the progress made so far under the stalled U.S.-Taliban peace talks.
U.S. Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, is also in Pakistan to discuss revival of the peace talks. He may also meet the Taliban delegation.
Mr. Khalilzad’s visit comes days after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s to the U.S., where he met U.S. President Donald Trump and among other issues and discussed the revival of negotiations to bring peace in Afghanistan.
Mr. Trump had earlier cancelled a secret meeting with the Taliban and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at Camp David near Washington after the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in Kabul, in which an American soldier was among the dead.
