Pakistan's premier wants to meet Taliban: FM

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - Pakistan on Monday said it was trying to woo the warring Taliban to hold direct talks with the Afghan government, a demand the militia has long been rejecting.

Speaking to reporters in the capital Islamabad, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that Prime Minister Imran Khan wanted to personally meet Taliban leaders in order to pursue them for the intra-Afghan dialogue.

"The prime minister wants to hold a meeting with the Taliban," he said.

Qureshi's remarks come days after Doha-based Afghan Taliban leaders announced that they were ready to visit Islamabad and meet Khan if invited.

"Pakistan is moving forward in good faith. [But] Pakistan is not a guarantor but only a facilitator in the Afghan peace process," Qureshi said, responding to a plethora of questions about Pakistan's ongoing efforts.

“The entire onus of the Afghan peace process cannot be put on Pakistan. It is the shared responsibility of all the stakeholders to take forward the peace process," he added.

The stepped up efforts to court the Afghan Taliban follow Khan's meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump during a visit to Washington.

Islamabad has already arranged landmark direct talks between the U.S. and the Taliban in an attempt to find a political solution to the lingering conflict in Afghanistan, which has entered its 18th year.

Replying to a question about Trump's offer to mediate the lingering Kashmir dispute, Qureshi said that New Delhi was neither ready to hold bilateral talks with Islamabad nor did it accept any third-party mediation.