Afghan leaders begin peace summit in Pakistan
Dozens of
Afghan political leaders are holding a peace conference in neighboring Pakistan
to pave the way for further Afghan-to-Afghan dialogue.
The
three-day conference comes ahead of President Ashraf Ghani’s visit to Pakistan
next week.
Ghani, his
political opponents and a broad swath of civil society have been meeting in
recent days with the United States’ special envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay
Khalilzad, who is continuing to press for talks between the Afghan government,
the opposition and the Taliban.
There are no
representatives of the Taliban at Saturday’s meeting near the Pakistani
capital, Islamabad.
However,
attending the conference is Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who struck a peace deal with
Ghani’s government and was taken off a US terrorist list. That peace deal was
touted as a blueprint for an agreement with the Taliban.
