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Kerry to host Afghan, Pakistan talks
Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday he would host a meeting of top Afghan and Pakistani officials this week in Brussels to discuss reconciliation with the Taliban and other issues.Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his defense minister, along with Pakistan's military chief and foreign secretary, will attend Wednesday's meeting, Kerry said. "I will be meeting with President Karzai and General (Ashfaq Parvez) Kayani and the civilian foreign minister from Pakistan while I am here," Kerry told reporters. He said the goal was to advance the peace process "in the simplest most, most cooperative, most cogent way so that we wind up with both Pakistan's and Afghanistan's interests being satisfied but most importantly with a peaceful and stable Afghanistan, which is worth the expenditure and the treasure and effort of these last years." Reconciliation efforts between the Taliban and Afghanistan promoted by the United States have hit several snags, including the assassination of Karzai's hand-picked negotiator, which shattered the little trust that existed between his government and Taliban elements that might be willing to talk peace. At the same time, Karzai has repeatedly said that any reconciliation cannot take place without the involvement of Pakistan, whose security services have close ties to the Taliban. Posted by: tipper 2013-04-22 |
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