KABUL: Afghanistan’s Taliban government said Saturday the latest round of peace talks with Pakistan had failed, blaming Islamabad’s “irresponsible and uncooperative” approach and stoking fears of further violence.
The two sides met on Thursday in Turkiye to finalize a truce agreed on October 19 in Qatar, following deadly clashes between the South Asian neighbors.
Both have remained virtually silent on the content of the discussions, which are known only to have addressed long-standing security issues.
“During the discussions, the Pakistani side attempted to shift all responsibility for its security to the Afghan government, while showing no willingness to take responsibility for either Afghanistan’s security or its own,” Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote on social media.
“The irresponsible and uncooperative attitude of the Pakistani delegation has not yielded any results,” he said.
But, he said, “The ceasefire that has been established has not been violated by us so far, and it will continue to be observed.”
Neither Islamabad nor mediators immediately commented on the announcement.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar hinted a day earlier that the negotiations were falling through, saying that the onus lay on Afghanistan to fulfil pledges to clamp down on terrorism, “which so far they have failed.”
“Pakistan shall continue to exercise all options necessary to safeguard the security of its people and its sovereignty,” he wrote.
AFP