Aziz offers Pak help to Hamid Karzai

Pakistan’s advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, visited Kabul on Sunday and offered once again Islamabad’s help to President Hamid Karzai in negotiating with the Afghan Taliban but clarified that the actual talks have to be between the two parties. Imtiaz Ahmad reports.

Pakistan’s advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, visited Kabul on Sunday and offered once again Islamabad’s help to President Hamid Karzai in negotiating with the Afghan Taliban but clarified that the actual talks have to be between the two parties. “We will not be part of any negotiations,” Aziz is said to have told his Afghan counterparts.

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Aziz said that the purpose of his visit was to invite President Karzai to Islamabad. Aziz arrives in Kabul at a time when relations between the two countries are a low point following Kabul’s reservations over the role played by Pakistan in the stalled talks with the Afghan Taliban earlier this year.

Afghanistan accused Pakistan of facilitating the Afghan Taliban and conspiring to break up the country.