Taliban rejected Pakistan peace talk invite: Member

After the secret meetings with Pakistani officials about two weeks ago, the Taliban’s Supreme Council met at an undisclosed location and voted to reject the talks scheduled for early March with the Afghan government, according to a council member. 

Instead, the insurgents are now pouring back into Afghanistan for what they say will be a fierce spring offensive to be launched soon. They could be feeling, “Why quit when you are ahead?” said an official. Pakistan’s influence over the insurgents is the lynchpin to the peace plan developed over last few months by Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States and China to bring an end to the 15-year-old war in Afghanistan. 

A Pakistani official in Islamabad said the Taliban’s recent success on the battlefield inside Afghanistan had changed the equation. “They no longer need their Pakistan bases in the same way, so if Pakistan threatens to expel them, it does not have the same effect,” said the official, a retired military officer close to the talks. 

The insurgents have won new zones of influence - if not outright control - from Afghan security forces since the United States and its allies pulled most combat troops from Afghanistan at the end of 2014, Afghan and Western officials acknowledge.  Nafees Zakaria, a spokesman for Pakistan’s Foreign Office, said, “We usually don’t know who has met with whom” in the sensitive and high-level peace initiative. 

However, an Afghan Cabinet member said, “Pakistan’s honesty and sincerity with regard to the Afghan peace process has always been a question,” echoing the sentiment of several officials interviewed there.