Sources privy to the development told Business Recorder that the four-nation QCG in its Kabul meeting will be clearer on the position of various Taliban groups and the meeting is expected to decide on the venue and date for face to face talks between the representatives of Afghan government and the Taliban groups. The Group which met for its first meeting on Monday emphasised immediate need for direct talks between Afghan government and Taliban groups in a peace process that aims to preserve Afghanistan's unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The sources said that the delegates also exchanged information on progress so far in reaching out to various Taliban groups willing to enter into the peace talks. The major Taliban groups including those headed by Mullah Akhtar Mansoor and the Haqqanis are willing to talk, the sources further maintained.
Afghan deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Olson and China's Special Envoy for Afghanistan Deng Xijun represented their respective countries in the four-nation QCG and discussed removing the names of Taliban leaders from the wanted terrorist list.
The sources further said that more proposals like prisoners' exchange, reducing insurgency and other confidence building measures also came under discussion. However, further deliberations will be held in Kabul in the group's next meeting. They said that the Afghan side also insisted that there should be a reduction in insurgency during the course of the dialogue process to reflect that the reconciliation process is largely recognised by the Afghans.
The sources said that the increasing insurgency in Afghanistan was not only a source of concern for President Ashraf Ghani but to the general Afghan public, as they believe that there must be some positive results on the ground while the dialogue process is ongoing prior to reaching a final understanding towards a broad base reconciliation.
When asked what would be the strategy against those insurgent groups not willing to participate in the talks, the source stated that at present the group is focused on the peace process and if there were any groups refusing to participate in the talks, then the group would come up with a joint strategy to decide on how to deal with these 'irreconcilables'.
Talking to this correspondent Syed Hamed Gailani, deputy leader of the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan, said that the common Afghans want genuine results on the ground, adding at present the Taliban are not losing but gaining more ground, which is a source of serious concern.
To move forward, he suggested that it was also vital to remove the distrust and stop the blame-game between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which is a pre-requisite for the success of peace talks. The senior Afghan politician also suggested that a peace mechanism should be set-up as to who should talk to whom before taking a final decision on the face to face talks. According to him, the Afghan High Peace Council should be reorganised and the body under a new chief given a central role in the peace talks.