Turkey says Pakistan-Afghanistan talks to resume / Photo: © AFP
Turkey says Pakistan-Afghanistan talks to resume
Pakistan and Afghanistan will hold another round of peace talks in Istanbul next week and will maintain a ceasefire until then, Turkey's foreign ministry confirmed late Thursday.
The talks, set for November 6, come in the wake of the deadliest clashes between the South Asian neighbours since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
More than 70 people were killed and hundreds wounded in violence that erupted after explosions in Kabul on October 9, which Taliban authorities blamed on Pakistan.
"All parties have agreed to continue the ceasefire. The modalities of its implementation will be examined and decided at a high-level meeting in Istanbul on November 6, 2025," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.
The two sides had been holding talks in Istanbul under Turkish and Qatari mediation, until Islamabad said Wednesday that the negotiations had collapsed.
A Pakistani security source, Pakistan state broadcaster PTV and Afghan state-run broadcaster RTA had all said earlier Thursday that the talks were likely to resume.
RTA laid the blame for the talks' collapse on "unreasonable demands of the Pakistani side".
Afghan officials have not commented publicly about the possibility of resuming the negotiations.
- 'Tired' -
Relations between the one-time allies, who share a 2,600-kilometre (1,600-mile) frontier, have deteriorated in recent years.
Islamabad accuses Kabul of harbouring militant groups that stage cross-border attacks, particularly the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which it says uses Afghan territory as a base.
The Taliban government has consistently denied the allegations.
"Any terrorist attack or any suicide bombing inside Pakistan shall give you the bitter taste of such misadventures," Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif warned this week.
"We are Muslims, brothers, neighbours, but some (in Pakistan), consciously or unconsciously, are playing with fire and war," Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani declared on Thursday.
While stressing that Afghans "do not want war," he nevertheless reiterated that for Kabul, "defending the territory is one of the priorities."
A ceasefire remains in place, but the border between the two countries has been closed for more than two weeks, biting into the earnings of conflict-weary traders.
In Kandahar on the Afghan side, Nazir Ahmed, a cloth trader, told AFP both countries "will bear losses".
"Our nation is tired and their nation is also tired," the 35-year-old said Wednesday.
Abdul Jabbar, a vehicle spare parts trader in the Pakistani border town of Chaman, said "trade suffers greatly".
"Both countries face losses -- both are Islamic nations," he told AFP.
The violence killed at least 50 Afghan civilians and wounded 447 others in one week, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) told AFP on Monday.
Pakistan's military said on October 12 that 23 personnel had been killed and 29 wounded, without detailing civilian casualties.
(A.Nikiforov--DTZ)
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